X-Men. With the revelation that Jean Grey was alive after the Phoenix Saga, the original five X-Men reunited and formed a new team, X-Factor. At first, X-Factor publicly posed as a group of human mutant-hunters that captured allegedly dangerous mutants. In truth, X-Factor would find young mutants in order to prevent government experimentation on them and then train them in the use of their powers.Team leader: Gage
Former Leaders: Dragon, Hazard, Wolverine, Forge, Havok, Cyclops
Current Roster: Gage, Dragon, Cryz, Eve, Myriad, Click, Phase, Polaris, Rhythm, Seraph, Hazard, Havok and Shadowcat.
I.
The original members of X-Factor were also the original members of the
After an attack on Muir Island by the psionic entity known as the Shadow King, which reunited X-Factor with the
X-Men, a new X-Factor was formed, under the auspices of the American government. The original members of the "new" X-Factor were Havok, Polaris, Wolfsbane, Multiple Man, Strong Guy, and Quicksilver. X-Factor investigated menaces that were believed to be of a superhuman nature for the government.
After the events of Onslaught, the team's charter was revoked by the government and the team was forced underground. Already being hounded by the government, the events of Operation: Zero Tolerance caused the team to scatter and disband. Wolverine was tracked down by S.H.I.E.L.D. after Operation: Zero Tolerance and put in the position of heading a new X-Factor team. This team was made up from a patchwork of sources; mercenaries, X-Men, and unexperience mutants. This team went up against the Hellfire Club and Weapon X , and discovered a conspiracy within the government surrounding a Senator Rolfe.That conspiracy ended with Senator Rolfe's death at the hands of a rogue group of X-Factor members.
Wolverine assumed all responsibility and was taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D., leaving the team lost without leadership. Hazard, an unlikely leader, was all that kept the team together and functioning over this rough period.However,
Hazard was captured by a Savior cyborg and Dragon, who had just returned, was thrust into the leadership position. The team's search for Hazard took them into space and across the country, confronting such enemies as the Savior cyborgs, a new Brotherhood, and the insane Syke.
X-Factor was visited by Squadron M, another government mutant team with the exception that Squadron M was a team of young mutants in training. To their shock, it was discovered that those children were not being kept against their will, because their minds had been brainwashed and they had no will. With the help of Generation X, Squadron M was taken away from government custody by faking their deaths. Though the faking part was unknown to all of X-Factor except Dragon. Because of their actions, their government sponsorship was retracted and they were branded as fugitives.Fleeing to Canada, X-Factor encountered Sinister who made them an offer to restore their government status. They accepted and were mutated by Sinister, changing their appearances so they could move more freely as his plan played out. X-Factor regained its FBI sponsorship after saving a political convention from an attack by the Marauders. The government team that replaced them were revealed to be fakes, and the altered members of X-Factor reverted to their true appearances and set off to Hong Kong at Dragon’s Bequest. Before leaving, though, Journystar, Reflex, and Shock left the team to pursue their own lives.
II.
**Over this part of the history, the roster has changed several times, so please excuse the absense of join/quit information of characters.
After returning from Hong Kong, Dragon was removed from leadership, and Gage was made TL. The entire team was threatened with criminal charges if they didn't stay on the team. They went a mission to the Hulkbuster base to destroy it, and escaped with an original Sentinel. Next, SOPHIA, the team AI, attacked the team and took over the sentinel, destroying much of the base. She was stopped, but not before she alerted actual new sentinels to X-Factor, which showed up and kidnapped Eve. At this point, the new liason explained to X-Factor that he was secretly "creating" these new foes (the Sophia Sentinel and the Hulkbuster base mission) in order to train them without arousing suspicion of government employees who were working for the Freinds of Humanity (now coupled with Weapon X). It was their sentinels who kidnapped Eve, he explained, and they were also holding his wife.
This sent the team to Alaska to destroy the base, which they did. Unfortunately, Weapon X had a contingent operative named Adam (Eve's counterpart), who escaped to go kill the president. X-Factor luckily stopped him and gained a bit of fame from this. It was then that a redesign of the team dynamic would occur. Val Cooper, Tyler Smith, and Henry Peter Gyrich (with funding from Worthington Industries) decided that the team would function in the public spotlight and moved them to the Falls Edge Base in Virginia.
Shortly after moving in to Falls Edge, the team was pitted against each other as Dragon (who had just discovered she was suffering from the Legacy Virus) attacked Gage and hosptitalized him. The fight was resolved, but Gage was kidnapped. Dragon would later find out that she was coerced into attacking Gage by Sapphire, a creation of Sinisters, who was using a young temporally psychic boy named Lucas to see into the future. Sapphire was brought down but, unfortunately, Lucas was killed. Sinister, upset at the boy's death, teleported to Falls Edge to kill Sapphire and take Dragon, to whom he had given the Legacy Virus, with him. Sapphire explained that she was the genetic daughter of Cryz and Dragon and together with X-Factor, the trio stopped Sinister. Unfortunately, Gage (kidnapped by Sinister) was near death as was Dragon (being taken by the Legacy Virus). Sapphire saved the day and cured both Gage and Dragon, using her knowledge from the future, at the expense of her own life.
The good fortune of having survived Sinister's interests, prompted Dragon and Cryz to get married. After returning from their honeymoon, Henry peter Gyrich dissappeared. While investigating, a person known as Jared was uncovered and the team would soon find out that Jared was a former USSR cyborg whose sole mission was destroy foriegn Super-Soldier programs. Eve being Weapon X, Arsenal with British Super-Soldier lineage, and Rhythm wih Cuban S-S lineage all had unknown ties to him. Gyrich's presence was explained, thus: He had aquired the Weapon X Prgram for the Super-Human Commisions Council and was secretly running it (and he was the person who brought the FoH and W-X together in Alaska). Jared was stopped and the team returned to the US.
Soon, they found themselves embroiled in time travelling. U.S. scientists at the secret Area 52 base in Colorado used Lucas' preserved brain to try and make psychic contact with the past. As it would happen, despite precautions, somebody with astral teleporting abilities went into the past and stopped the assassination of Graydon Creed. Detecting a destruction wave moving through space, the scientists called X-Factor, and using ex-Excalibur member Twitch, teleported into the past to ensure the death of Graydon Creed.
Back in the future, the team was split when Smith and Cooper tried to replace Gage with Havok as leader. Half the team decided to go with Gage, who in turn picked up Hazard. They then went to investigate the Super Human Commision (specifically Gyrich, the WX project, and any involvement of his in Squadron M), but the office of the SHC was bombed. Both halves of the team arrived and were later seen leaving the scene of the crime, and were thusly blamed for the bombing. Smith came after them in an exo-skeletal armor, which verloaded and killed him and nearly killed X-Factor. Everyone beleieving X-Factor was dead, the team ended up in the hands of CIA Opertive Micheal Skyler.
*Post Script: This history should be constantly updated, but for further information please contact Gage in #alliance.
*Post Post Script: Part I of this history was authored by Hazard and can be seen on the X-World page at www.x-world.iwarp.com. Part II was authored by Gage.