While in the circus, he felt unrequited love for his foster sister Amanda, who only had eyes for her handsome colleague Werner. Col. Stryker had Mutant 143 use these feelings to lure Kurt out in the open where he was captured and taken to the Alkali Lake Base. While Kurt thought he had married Amanda, he woke up to find Stryker and an inhibitor collar. Stryker used his mind-control serum to brainwash Kurt and sent him to attack the President at the White House. The assassination may even have been supposed to fail; the purpose was simply to make mutants seem enough of a threat to warrant executive action.
After his spectacular assault on the White House, Nightcrawler was tracked by Cerebro and found by Storm and Jean Grey. He helped to save Rogue from the damaged X-Jet and then teleported Storm into the locked Cerebro 2 chamber so she could save the Professor. While Nightcrawler was with the X-Men when they confronted the President about Stryker's actions at the White House, he was not wearing a uniform and has not been seen as an active member of the team.
Soon after the battle of Alkali Lake Nightcrawler joined the X-Men and Lady Deathstrike returned and teamed up with Silver Samurai to kill Wolverine. However, Kurt began to be haunted by the voice of Jason Stryker. Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler all went to try to stop the revived members of Hydra. Nightcrawler teleported into the base and unlocked the gates but was attacked by Sentinels. The Sentinels released robots in to the air and once they found a target, they locked on then self-destructed. Nightcrawler teleported on top of the Sentinel's head, making them lock on to him and the area around him, then when they locked on he would teleport, causing the Sentinel to crash. Colossus then teamed up with Nightcrawler in order to destroy the four power generators. Meanwhile, Jason was saying "You let me die!" over and over in Kurt's head. After two massive missions with the X-Men, however Nightcrawler decided the life of a superhero was not for him and he returned to his native land, Germany.
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