Sage



Sage is a mutant telepath with a computer-like mind capable of infinite recall. She has been a Hellfire Club Member, X-Man, member of Excalibur, and more recently an Exile. She was last seen as encased in crystal stasis in the Panoptichron. Currently a member of Dazzler's X-Treme team.

Histroy
Little is known of the life of the woman known as Sage except that she had lived in a small village in the Balkan region of Europe whilst still a young girl, and that she had spent time in a harem under unrevealed circumstances. Just prior to her teenage years, Sage found herself immensely caught up in the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. She was forced to learn to fight to survive encounters with both soldiers and local bandits, and took weapons and equipment from the bodies of fallen combatants. One day, Sage felt herself compelled to enter a cave in the nearby Hindu Kush mountain range. There, she found the powerful telepathic mutant named Charles Xavier, who had been trapped under a massive stone block by the alien being named Lucifer. Initially wary of him, Sage rescued the critically injured mutant but soon after they encountered a United Nations aid convoy being attacked by bandits. Sage drove off the attackers and then avenged the death of one young U.N. worker by brutally murdering the bandit that had raped and killed her.

Hellfire Club
Years later, Xavier recruited Sage at the same time that he formed his original team of teenage mutant students he called the X-Men. Xavier kept Sage's presence at his mansion a secret as he intended to utilize her own mutant talents as a spy in his fight for peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans. Sage's first mission was to infiltrate the organization for the rich and powerful known as the Hellfire Club and to gain the trust of Sebastian Shaw, leader of the Club's Inner Circle at its New York branch. For years, Sage acted as Shaw's familiar, advising and counseling him in both his legitimate and illegal business practices, all the while gathering information for Xavier. Shaw found Sage's ability to function as a living computer invaluable and kept her in his employ for many years, even during the time he was deposed as leader of the Club.

Early in Sage’s time with the Club, its renegade White Bishop, Donald Pierce, attempted a coup of the Club's leadership. Pierce kidnapped Sage, believing that without her Shaw's position could more easily be compromised. She was rescued by Xavier and his team of New Mutants and, upon her return to the Club, Pierce was expelled.

Later, Sage ran afoul of one of the Club’s regular and valued patrons, a reclusive billionaire named Elias Bogan. Shaw had made a wager with Bogan during a game of cards whereupon if Shaw lost, Bogan would win the Club's then-White Queen, the telepathic mutant Emma Frost. Bogan had never lost a game before, but with Sage’s help Shaw won the bet.

Bogan honored the wager, but knew who was truly responsible for his defeat and exacted his revenge on Sage, capturing her and branding her face with facial tattoos. Rescued by the X-Man Storm, Sage soon affiliated herself with the X-Men, acting as part of their support crew. In order to shield herself from detection by Bogan, Sage consciously shut down her telepathic abilities, relying solely on her computer-like mind to assist her new teammates.

When Senator Robert Kelly announced his intention to run for the Presidency on an anti-mutant platform, Sage met with him to persuade him otherwise by convincing him that his actions were no different to those of the mutant terrorist Magneto. Kelly was not so easily swayed, however, and it wasn’t until a mutant sacrificed his life to save Kelly that he realized his folly.

X-Men
Storm soon recruited her into a splinter group of X-Treme X-Men who set out to search for the diaries of the blind mutant seer named Destiny that predicted the future of mutantkind. On the new team's first mission, Sage was instrumental in saving the life of her teammate the Beast after an encounter with the self-professed enhanced human named Vargas. Sage used a heretofore-unseen ability to advance the Beast's evolution to its next stage, healing him of his injuries and activating his latent Secondary Mutation.

Eventually learning of Sage's deception, Shaw allied himself with Lady Mastermind, the daughter of former Hellfire Club member Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), to exact revenge on his former assistant. Lady Mastermind trapped Sage in a convincing illusion, making her believe that she was once again Shaw's assistant back in the Hellfire Club. Sage was freed thanks to the efforts of Heather Cameron, an Australian mutant with the ability to manifest various super-human powers depending on what the current situation called for, and the X-Men defeated Shaw once more.

Sage later catalyzed the latent mutant powers of Heather’s brother Davis, who subsequently joined the X-Treme X-Men as Slipstream, as well as evolving her teammate Rogue's mutant ability to grant her control over the manifestation of the powers and abilities she has absorbed over the years.

Sage often used her computer-like mind to assist her teammate Bishop in his activities as a homicide detective, such as when they were called upon to investigate the attempted murder of Emma Frost, now a member of the X-Men and an instructor at Xavier’s school.

Later, when the X-Treme team encountered Elias Bogan once more after a murder at his Alaskan estate, Sage and Bishop were called in to investigate. A young mutant named Jeffrey Garrett was wanted for questioning after Bogan had his family killed and, in retaliation, he teleported Bogan's associates onto the nearby glacier where they froze to death. Garrett fled to the Xavier Institute where he came under the protection of Frost. However, Bogan had secretly possessed the young boy and when Frost scanned his mind, Bogan took possession of her. Sage and Bishop followed the trail to the mansion where Bogan captured them, but the timely arrival of Storm allowed them to escape and defeat the villain.

Bogan returned to plague the X-Treme X-Men soon after when he captured and mentally enslaved Bishop, hoping to use him as a weapon against his teammates. With the aid of several of their former allies the X-Men were able to rescue Bishop, which allowed Sage to defeat Bogan once and for all.

Sage then accompanied her teammates back to New York to assist in the rebuilding of the mansion following an attack by Magneto, after which they rejoined the core X-Men team. Sage remained with Storm's team, which were now called the X.S.E. (X-Treme Sanctions Executive), who operated as international government-approved team, with full authority on mutant situations around the globe. Sage operated a computer system that monitored the team's activities and analyze relevant data.

When the X-Men are attacked by The Fury, it infects Sage with nannites through the glasses she uses to keep in contact with her teammates. Taken over by the Fury, Sage proves a formidable threat to her fellow X-Men until they are able to damage the connection established through the glasses and free Sage from the mind control. Sage formulates a plan to use the team's powers to help Rachel Summers create a miniature black hole effect, which finally defeats the Fury.

When Sage learns that Sebastian Shaw is reforming the Hellfire Club with the help of Viper and Courtney Ross (actually Sat-yr-9), she manipulates the X-Men into a conflict with the Hellfire Club. With Shaw ousted, Sage manoeuvres Shaw's recent recruit Sunspot into the position of Lord Cardinal of the Hellfire Club. Sage leaves the X-Men to stay and keep an eye on Sunspot to make sure he is not corrupted by power, as Sebastian was.

New Excalibur
Sage later mysteriously leaves the Hellfire Club and travels to England to join a new incarnation of the British super-team Excalibur, alongside fellow X-Men Dazzler and the then-reformed Juggernaut. She helps them on various missions such as battling the Shadow King and returning to ancient Camelot to prevent it from being prematurely destroyed. Sage also plays a key role teammate Nocturne's recovery from a debilitating stroke.

In order to learn more about a new foe, Albion, and thwart his attempt to conquer Britain, Sage creates the new cover identity and persona of Diana Fox. This persona appears to be fully devoted to Albion and his goals. Despite the concerns of Pete Wisdom, her infiltration is a success and she quickly gains seniority among Albion's Shadow Captains, as "Britannia", in doing so making a rival of Lionheart. Sage is given a special suit as a member of Albion's army, which gives her flight and super-human physical strength. Eventually Sage is overcome by her own assumed identity, allowing the Diana Fox persona to dominate and becoming fully committed to Albion. During this time, she slays two of Excalibur's erstwhile allies in Shadow-X, Dark Cyclops and Dark Beast. Finally a confrontation with her teammates in Excalibur helps Sage's original personality reassert itself. Together with Excalibur, Shadow-X, and Lionheart, Sage defeats Albion and his Shadow Captains.

New Exiles
Immediately after the defeat of the Shadow Captains, a party is held in honor of Excalibur. While the team enjoys the party, Sage feels guilt for her actions. The party is suddenly crashed by Psylocke and an alternate universe Thunderbird, members of the dimension-hopping Exiles team. They are then attacked by Rouge-Mort and drawn into a battle to save the multiverse from Merlin and Sage's old foe The Fury. Joining forces with the rest of the Exiles, Roma and the Captain Britain Corps. The team defeats Merlin, but not before he manages to kill Roma. Prior to her death, Roma manages to transfer all of her knowledge about the multiverse into Sage's mind. Sage is overwhelmed and she fears for her sanity. Fearful of what would happen if someone on Earth ever gained the knowledge in her mind, Sage joins the Exiles. The knowledge imparted to her by Roma causes her to suffer from hallucinations, as well as a reemergence of the Diana Fox persona, attempting to take control of her again. Sage fights these, staying in the Panoptichron rather than accompanying the other Exiles on missions. After she attempts to suppress the Diana Fox personality, and later fight and defeat it, the Diana Fox personality ultimately sacrifices itself to save Sage when she is almost killed by Merlin. Sage then saves the multiverse by merging with the Crystal Palace, becoming one with the Exiles team's computer base.

Sage later seems to have been permanently absorbed and rendered comatose along with the rest of her Exiles team.[1]

X-Treme X-Men
Sage has apparently been revived from this state, though. Referred to as "Ambassador Sage", she has assumed a leadership position in the S.W.O.R.D. of an alternate reality in which sentient robots, led by Prime Minister Danger, have exterminated the human population. Sage observes her old teammate Dazzler and an alternate reality Wolverine called Howlett attempting to rescue Kurt Waggoner from the robots, and rescues them in her robotic space ship.[2]

Giving away little of how she ended up in this reality, Sage nevertheless subsequently joins Dazzler's group of multiverse-hopping X-Men. She remains the pilot of their space ship as they hunt down "evil" versions of Charles Xavier. At Dazzler's request, Sage also begins to utilize her telepathic powers once again.[3] When the sorcerer Lord Xavier possesses the team's own "Disembodied Xavier Head" and resurrected "Nazi Xavier", he then proceeds to open up a multidimensional rift that allows the Exterminators to escape their prison.[4] As the team attempts to deal with this threat they are joined by teams from other realities, and Sage and Dazzler are reunited with some of their former colleagues, including Wolverine and Gambit. Sage is teleported back to her home reality, where she interfaces with the "black box" of the Dreaming Celestial, and uncovers the Exterminators' lost history. In doing so she also ascertains that the only way to defeat them is once again to imprison them, in an inescapable reality.[5] When this is accomplished, Sage is left in her home reality with her fellow X-Men.[6]

Power and Abilities
Sage is a mutant with a computer-like brain. She can process large volumes of data with efficiency so great it is nearly instantaneous. She also has a photographic memory which allows her to recall almost anything she needs. Sage;s mind also has a reboot function similar to a computer's. Sage's computer intellect has facilitated her ability to learn many things in many fields including advanced martial arts, tactics, and weapons training.

Sage is in peak physical condition and is skilled at both unarmed and armed combat. She is skilled with technology, and uses a set of VR glasses that allow her to interface with computers and other technology. Other people can link up with similar sets of glasses. Sage is often used as the tactician and/or headquarters' hub, using her mind to keep in constant contact with all of her allies at once.

Sage also absorbed all of Roma's knowledge and memories. All of this "information download" happened almost instantly, so her mind turned all of this knowledge into several distinct personalities. She then bested each in mental combat and assimilated them into her memory. Whether or not this granted Sage any of Roma's magical ability is unknown. The Two Telepaths She also has the ability to detect and analyze the genetics of others. So far this ability has been used to unlock latent mutant abilities in dormant mutants, and to unlock hidden aspects of mutant powers. This ability works closely with her computer-like mind giving her the ability to quickly analyze and understand the subject's DNA. Sage can also "see" the genetic structure of a person. She can read the DNA and understand their power (If they are a mutant) probably better than the person can themselves. She can then boost the person's powers advancing them to a certain extent. Also she can see the potential in a human to become a mutant and jump start their latent power.

Sage is a telepathic mutant with the ability to read minds, project her thoughts, control minds, project her astral form and project realistic illusions. She is able to sense any form of life near her and especially mutant minds. Also she can reflect telepathic attacks away from her by using her 'Firewall' ability. She can only use this by shutting her telepathic powers off. Sage exhibits strong willpower which protects her from certain telepathic attacks.