User Profile

The Science of Nightcrawler


Kurt Wagner led a life unusual even by X-Men standards. Abandoned under mysterious circumstances, be was found by the gypsy queen and sorceress Margali Szardos who took him to her gypsy circus where be was raised by the group. Years later, Kurt, whose powers had by then matured, left the circus after it was purchased by an American businessman and taken to Florida. Returning to Germany, Kurt was attacked by superstitious villagers who believed he was a demon responsible for the recent deaths of several children. Fortunately for him, Professor X was nearby, in the process of searching for new recruits for the X-Men. He found Kurt just in time to rescue him. He joined the X-Men, adopting his code name, Nightcrawler.



POWERS


Unlike almost all other mutants with super powers, Nightcrawler was born with major physical differences-pointed ears and teeth, only two fingers and a thumb on each hand, only two toes and an amazingly flexible projection on the heel of each foot What's more, his eyes are yellow and have no pupil-although this doesn't prevent him from having near-perfect night vision. His entire body appears to be covered in coarse short blue fur which may actually he mutated human hair (see segment on testosterone in the Wolverine entry). His spine is more flexible than an ordinary human being's, which allows him to spend much of his time in a crouching posture without giving him a backache. More importantly to his career as an X-Man, it also enables him to perform contortionist-like feats. Nightcrawler also has a pointed, prehensile tail. This tail can not only grasp items but also perform complex tasks such as fencing with a sword. It has also proven strong enough to support his weight and, occasionally, the weight of another person as well.
But his greatest ability is that of teleportation.




TELEPORTATION


Nightcrawler teleports by displacing himself into the underdocumented "Darkforce" dimension, which he travels trough until he reemerges in our time-space continuum at his desired location. The entire process occurs so quickly-nearly instantaneously-that he is unaware of having visited another dimension at all. His teleportation power is not psionic but, rather, the result of a chemical biophysical reation that he triggers mentally.
One side effect of Nightcrawler's teleportation is the burst of smoke and a stench reminiscent of burning brimstone. This is a chemical reaction by-product of teleportation. Nightcrawler's teleportation is invariably accompanied by the muffled sound of an implosion of air rushing to fill the vacuum caused by his body's dimensional shift.

Nightcrawler has very limited extrasensory power that prevents him from teleporting himself into a solid wall. The farther he teleports, the more difficult and tiring it is. He most likely has some automatic mechanism that compensates for his momentum, enabling him to "land" safely. Again, it's an automatic compensotory action performed without any conscious effort on his part.

Nightcrawler's teleportation ability depends on his ability to visualize his destination-either by being able to see it or from having seen it in the past. He can teleport himself, the clothes he wears, and within limits, a certain amount of additional matter that is in contact with him. He can even carry a buddy along with him.

The trip itself can be quite unsettling as any matter traveling through the Darkforce dimension is slightly displaced. By taking a foe through a rapid succession of teleports, he can easily stun them into insensibility.

It is easier for him to teleport between north and south along Earth's magnetic lines of force than is it for him to east and west, against them. Under the best circumstances, teleporting only himself and his costume, he can send himself about two miles east-to-west and up to three miles north-to-south. It is difficult and dangerous for him to teleport upward. He once made a vertical teleportational jump of two miles but had to push himself to his physical limits.

When he transports a passenger over even moderate distances, they both feel weakened and ill no the point of exhaustion. Teleportation over further distances might lead to death.

His momentum is retained throughout the teleportation process so that he arrives at enactly the same momentum with which he left. If he were to fall from a great height, he could not teleport himself towards the ground in an effort to slow his descent and save himself. Even if he teleported, he would land at the some velocity with which he was falling.

The big problem with teleportation is that the world turns. Yes, this is probably not news to you, but the Earth spins extremely fast So we are all in constant motion.

Even though Nightcrawler seldom teleports more than three miles, when he does that to the north or south, it would amount to a velocity change of about 44 feet per second, for the Earth spins much faster at the equator than it does north or south of it

The diameter of the Earth at the equator is 7,926 miles. It makes a complete rotation in 24 hours (one day). The diameter at the exact center of the north and south poles is zero. The poles spin at zero miles per hour. The equator spins at about 1037.5 miles per hour, Or .2882 miles per second.

The world is also revolving around the Son, so we are in motion from that. And the solar system is spiraling around the huge black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, so we move with that too. And the entire danged galany is flying away from the center of the universe, still in motion from the Big Bang.

All told, we all have a lot of momentum. So if you abruptly pick us up and plunk us down in the middle of somewhere else that isn't traveling at exactly the same speed us we are, in exactly the some direction, zip, off we go, flying into the nearest wall like a bug against a windshield.

Force equals mass times acceleration, and we all have a lot of force-and acceleration-inherent in our lives. If that force is misdirected, the results can be disostrous, as, for example, when we're sitting comfortably in a car traveling at 60 miles per hour, unaware, really, of how fast we're moving and how much force we contain... until someone suddenly hits the brakes.

Nightcrawler has to have an automatic mechanism that compensates for momentum. This automatic compensatory action is controlled subconsciously and is most likely performed by his rear brain.

Friends (30):

Friend of (24):