SHARD

Publication Date: 11th Jan 2024
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Shard Bishop was the second child of Burnum and Kadee Bishop, born decades into the future of Earth-1191. The Bishops were Australian immigrants who came to the United States to escape nuclear strikes on their homeland. However, they were also mutants, and mutants were illegal in America at this time under the Mutant Control Act. Sentinels caught them at the airport and incarcerated them at the Sheepshead Bay internment center in New York. Kadee was pregnant with Shard’s brother Lucas when they arrived, and Shard was born in the camps three years later.

These were the last days of the camps, and among the worst for mutantkind. Sheepshead Bay led the country in experimentation on mutants, and they developed a genetic marker which branded mutants with an ‘M’ tattoo over their eye, permanently encoded into their DNA. Shard was two years old when she was branded. Kadee Bishop never adapted to captivity, and retreated from her husband and her children into depression. Burnum raised Lucas and Shard with the help of their grandmother, who had also been brought to the camp. When the Summers Rebellion started, mutants began to rise up against their oppressors, and even the human population came to recognize the atrocities of the camps. The rebellion was violent, however, and the liberation of Sheepshead Bay brought about the deaths of Kadee and Burnum, and separated Shard and her grandmother from Lucas. [X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop #1]

As society adjusted after the Summers Rebellion, mutants were initially encouraged towards Las Vegas, Nevada, a “free zone” or reservation set aside for them to live unmolested. Shard and her grandmother made it there, and they were eventually joined by Lucas. They lived poor but free for a time, joined by Grandmother’s friend Hancock, a veteran of the Summers Rebellion and who lost his eyes in the conflict. Lucas always lapped up Grandmother and Hancock’s stories about the legendary X-Men and great mutant heroes of the past, but Shard was too young to appreciate the stories, and their grandmother passed away before she could. Changes in politics led to the mutants being “emancipated” from the reservation, which ultimately meant Las Vegas no longer received government funding for mutant schooling, food or medicine. Living on the streets and still essentially hated and feared by humans, Lucas and Shard’s grandmother died without adequate health care. With her last breath, she made Lucas promise to always look after his sister, a vow he would take very seriously. [X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop #2, X.S.E. #1, Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘96]

In the new order, mutant advocates refused to be policed by humans, and so an official organization was forged to let mutants police their own. The Xavier Security Enforcers were often denounced by mutants on the streets, however, who saw them as another incarnation of the Hounds, mutant slaves who once hunted their own kind for the camps. Radical anarchists like the Exhumes presented themselves as freedom fighters for the mutant cause, standing up to the X.S.E. and rejecting conformity to human standards. Lucas and Shard cheered the Exhumes at first, until they crossed paths with X.S.E. officers Sureshot and Trace hunting the Exhume known as Virago. Faced with capture, Virago grabbed the child Shard to use as a living shield. Lucas jumped the butcher and distracted her enough to save Shard and give Sureshot the opportunity to fire. From that point on, Lucas and Shard knew the real defenders of mutantkind were the Xavier Security Enforcers. [X.S.E. #1]

Living on the streets, Lucas and Shard foraged and stole in order to feed themselves and Hancock. They tried to stay away from the mutant gang warfare erupting, but they still made enemies and eventually their scavenging caught up with them. Enforcers named Halftrack and Billiboy killed Hancock and advanced on the siblings. They would have died as well if the situation hadn’t triggered Bishop’s ability to rechannel energy. A bio-blast floored Halftrack and Billiboy long enough for X.S.E. officers named Recoil and Amazon to arrive and take the gang members into custody. Lucas Bishop had earned a reputation on the streets by this point, and Amazon offered him membership in the X.S.E.’s training academy. Lucas’s instinctive first response was “Not without my sister.” [Bishop #3]

At the academy, Lucas and Shard met Hecat’e, the founder of the X.S.E. and a former squad mate of Hancock from the Summers Rebellion. She outlined the history of the X.S.E. and the need for mutants to establish order amongst themselves, lest the humans take the initiative in doing so again. The ‘M’ tattoo had been reclaimed by the X.S.E. as a badge of honor, one to be earned by officers when they graduated. Hecat’e remarked to the class how Lucas and Shard already earned their tattoos in the camps, for the younger mutants in the academy had come of age after branding was no longer common.

Another trainee named Trevor Fitzroy took an instant dislike to Lucas, but Shard was focused on Hecat’e, whose steel and fire were everything she wanted to be when she grew up. After initiation, Hecat’e spoke to the siblings about Hancock and said she hoped they were worthy of his sacrifice. Shard tried to look tough in front of her idol, pushing back over why Hecat’e let Hancock die on the streets if they were so close. However, Shard then immediately crumbled under the intimidating effect of Hecat’e’s null-light field, for the X.S.E.’s first officer did not like being insulted by a child. Lucas unflinchingly stood up to Hecat’e through her darkness, defending his sister. Hecat’e was impressed and took a passing shot at Shard to reminder her she was only welcome because of her brother’s insistence. This would shape their relationship for years to come. As much as Shard loved her brother Bishop, she resented living in his shadow and was determined to prove her own worth to the organization beyond being “Bishop’s little sister.”

During X.S.E. training, the class went on patrol through the streets with Trace and Sureshot. Their band was attacked by a group of Emplates, mutants suffering from a transmittable genetic condition that gave them a voracious appetite for mutant bone marrow. Their escorts flagged Cerebro central at base before dying to the attackers. One of the Emplates grabbed Shard and the threat triggered her own ability to convert light into force. She struck back with a photonic blast, but her lack of training collapsed a wall atop one of their classmates Hopper as well as an Emplate. Bishop and the class’ marksman Shirley Baylor got Shard and the others into a shelter before holding off the Emplates until back-up arrived. The three of them were commemorated back at headquarters, and Bishop was singled out as the youngest cadet in X.S.E. history to receive full officer status. Of course, that record was surpassed the next year by Shard, setting the stage for their private competition between siblings. [X.S.E. #1-2]

Bishop peaked with the X.S.E. as a squad commander, believing he could do the most good on the streets with his men. He inspired incredible devotion from his subordinates, Malcolm and Randall, as Omega Squad became informally known as “Bishop’s men.” Shard spent time with Omega Squad as well, but her aspirations were to aim higher. [Bishop: Xavier Security Enforcer #1-3]

She and Bishop still bickered, as siblings do, and part of that was over her romance with his rival, Trevor Fitzroy. Both Shard and Trevor admittedly dated each other to make Bishop nuts, but there was some real feelings between them. Still, Fitzroy had his own ambitions. As the illegitimate son of the Hellfire Club’s Anthony Shaw, Trevor was on the outside as a bastard so long as his half-brother William lived. When William suddenly died, Trevor was removed from the X.S.E. academy and called back to the family. Fitzroy began committing criminal acts against humans and was eventually caught by Omega Squad. It was Shard who concocted the plan that led to his capture, based off of her personal knowledge of Trevor’s haunts and habits. [X.S.E. #3] Shard and Fitzroy’s relationship degenerated even further over time when Shard was somehow responsible for the death of Trevor’s mother. This betrayal from Fitzroy’s perspective left a blood debt between them. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #301]

Shard finally secured her promotion to lieutenant by orchestrating the capture of an elusive mutant serial killer named Mountjoy. The X.S.E.’s most wanted, many had tried and failed to bring in Mountjoy, but his ability to absorb flesh and covertly inhabit bodies made him highly elusive. Shard successfully profiled the murderer and personally administered the restraints once Omega Squad carried out her strategy. She tried to return the favor by using her influence to secure promotions for Bishop as well, but Shard never quite understood that Lucas was where he wanted to be, out in the field. [Bishop #3, X.S.E. #3] Shard did not find fulfillment in her promotion, however, as the X.S.E.’s attempts to impose order on the future slipped further away. Shard became bitter towards their failed efforts, and her concerns came to the attention of a rogue element of maverick officers known as the X.U.E., Xavier’s Underground Enforcers.

The X.U.E. and their mysterious leader felt that the X-Men and the X.S.E. after them had failed Xavier’s dream, and the future needed a hard re-set. Having learned that Trevor Fitzroy’s power to teleport had evolved into creating time portals, the X.U.E. wanted to use Fitzroy to travel back in time and change their reality. Shard’s knowledge of Fitzroy was allegedly key to their plans. Shard reluctantly agreed to join the X.U.E., and was psychically linked to the others by their telepath, Fixx. They captured Fitzroy, but Shard’s attempts to coerce him into willingly helping them failed. The X.U.E. were prepared to harvest Fitzroy’s power against his will, but Shard rejected the idea. She planned to remain true to her oath to the X.S.E. and turn Fitzroy over to the law. The X.U.E. seemed curiously unconcerned about giving up their plans and allowed Shard to return to duty. It was implied that Fixx psychically “fogged” Shard’s memory of their conspiracy and may have influenced her devotion to their crusade up until that point. [X-Factor (1st series) #140-141]

Back on the career track, Shard sought to rise further by pioneering a unimatrix hologram program as a joint venture with the Witness’s people at Stark-Fujikawa. The Witness was an old acquaintance of Bishop’s from the time when he was separated from Shard and their grandmother during the Rebellion, a street hustler turned powerful and mysterious technology broker. These interactive holo-figures were conceived of as a means to increase the X.S.E.’s numbers in the field. However, Bishop tested the holo-figure and found it to be woefully lacking in innovation and combat techniques. The technology existed to make the holo-figure as competent as a full officer, but the Catch-22 was that it would require downloading a full set of mental engrams into the holo-matrix, effectively killing the template person. The process was untested and failed to address the issues of manpower the X.S.E. were already struggling with. At Bishop’s recommendation, Hecat’e declared the holo-figure program a dead end, which infuriated Shard.

Trevor Fitzroy had gone free thanks to his father’s influence, leading him to form a group of Hellions causing mayhem while protected thanks to political favors. Bishop finally got tired of it all and apprehended Fitzroy anyway. In an effort to save himself, Fitzroy offered Bishop a lead on where the current Exhumes were hiding out. Because of their recent fight, Bishop offered the chance at a high-profile collar to Shard in order to mend fences between them. Unfortunately, the lead was a trick by Fitzroy. The Exhumes had been consumed and turned by a nest of Emplates. Shard and her unit were feasted upon and turned into Emplates themselves by the time Bishop realized Fitzroy had set them up. [X.S.E. #3]

Standing orders among the X.S.E. were to terminate Emplates on sight – they were too dangerous and considered irredeemable as the people they once were. Bishop saw signs of Shard’s true personality fighting beneath the change into an Emplate, though, and he made a daring decision. Bishop stunned Shard and brought her to Stark-Fujikawa where her mind could be extracted from the corrupted body and transferred into the holomatrix uni-projector. The Witness agreed to perform the procedure if Bishop would leave the X.S.E. and work for him in private service for a year. Bishop reluctantly agreed in order to save at least some vestige of his sister. Shard physically died on the operating table, but her brain wave engrams were copied and stored in the holographic matrix technology. After his year of service ended, Bishop collected the holo-matrix from the Witness and returned to the X.S.E. [X.S.E. #4]

[Note: X-Men: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop #2 told a slightly re-imagined version of Shard and Bishop’s history. In this sequence, Bishop was present from the beginning during the Emplate attack which killed Shard, but otherwise the broad strokes remained the same.]

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