Rushman, Sarah (person)

Sarah "Marrow" Rushman was a former Morlock and joined with the X-Men.

### Affiliation

X-Men, Hellfire Club, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Cable's X-Force, X-Cell, Morlocks, Weapon Plus/Weapon X, S.H.I.E.L.D., Gene Nation

### Occupation

Adventurer; former covert operative, waitress, terrorist, scavenger, murderer, sniper

## History

### Early Years

s a child, Sarah was one of the underground-dwelling Morlocks. When Callisto, the Morlocks' leader, kidnapped the X-Man Angel to be her husband, Sarah came across the captive Angel. Sarah believed Angel was beautiful. He would become an idol of worship for her.

When the Marauders massacred the Morlock community, a young Sarah was saved by Gambit, who was not yet known by the X-Men. Years later, most of the surviving Morlocks (including Sarah) were apparently killed by Mikhail Rasputin, although they were actually brought to another dimension.
There, Mikhail had established a citadel for himself on the top of a massive hill. The Social Darwinist philosophy of "survival of the fittest" was the only thing which governed the society. If someone could reach the summit of the hill they were considered "fit" and worthy of being part of Gene Nation.
The former Morlock leader Callisto cared for Marrow during this period and displayed a maternal attitude towards the young mutant. When her powers fully manifested she was forced to "up the hill", becoming more savage and killing her opponents to survive. When she managed to reach the top, Mikhail considered her fit to join his elite fighting team Gene Nation, which eventually became a terrorist group whose mission was to punish humans for their hatred towards mutants.

### Gene Nation

Time passed quickly in that harsh dimension. When Marrow and several other members of Gene Nation (of which she had become leader) returned to Earth, they discovered only a few years had passed during their absence. Marrow and the other members of Gene Nation began a homicidal terrorist campaign against surface-dwelling humans.[*citation needed*]

After inconclusive battles with the X-Men and Generation X, Gene Nation was defeated by the X-Men. Marrow wired a time bomb to her own heart to force the X-Man Storm, who had herself led the Morlocks in the past, to either yield or kill her; Storm tore out Marrow's heart. However, due to Marrow's possession of two hearts to compensate for her random bone growth and superhuman regenerative abilities, she survived.

Marrow eventually reunited with Callisto, and while they continued their terrorist activities, including an attack on a Lila Cheney concert that brought them into battle with Cable, Callisto tried to hold back Marrow's more violent ways.

### X-Men

When Marrow and Callisto attacked Henry Peter Gyrich for his involvement in Operation: Zero Tolerance, Callisto was injured by a Prime Sentinel. She directed Marrow to seek the aid of the X-Men. After teaming up with Iceman and Cecilia Reyes, Marrow went to the Xavier Institute. She joined the X-Men for a time, coming under the mentorship of Wolverine and flirting with her teammate Cannonball.

During an adventure in another dimension, Gambit, unable to control his powers, accidentally injured Marrow. She was later hospitalized on the Skrulls home-world, and thanks to the alien technology Marrow gained more control over her powers, giving her a "prettier" appearance. This led to major softening of her personality, to the point where she reached out to Jubilee following Wolverine's then recent disappearance. Following the reorganization of the X-Men's roster she disappeared from the X-Men.

### Brainwashed

She was next seen brainwashed and used as a sleeper agent by S.H.I.E.L.D. under the alias of "Sarah Rushman" (an alias that had also been used by the Black Widow). Her mission was to terminate rogue Life-Model Decoys. She had a split personality (Mutant Marrow and human teenager Sarah) and had to be periodically injected to keep her implanted memories. With Spider-Man's help, she freed herself from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control by faking a suicide.

### Weapon X

Marrow was later recruited by the most recent incarnation of Weapon X, who again normalized her appearance and her powers. She betrayed the Weapon X organization upon discovering their anti-mutant nature. She reformed the Gene Nation terrorist cell and, as their leader, led several terrorist attacks on Weapon X until the rest of the group was slaughtered by Agent Zero. Agent Zero left her alone, not wanting her to become a martyr, but he warned her that he would come after her again after he had hunted down the remaining members of Gene Nation.

## Attributes

### Powers

**Hyper-Accelerated Metabolism:** Her metabolism is the basis of what fuels her abilities to the way that they have manifested.

* **Accelerated Bone Growth:** She has the ability to control the growth, shape, and toughness of her bone structure. Initially this was uncontrolled as they constantly protruded from her skin at an uncontrollable rate, but after getting enhancement by a Skrull medical facility, and later by the Weapon X Program, she would learn to mostly control it retaining a more clean semblance, despite each enhancement administered having partially failed over time. Sarah's body generates bony protrusions which she can remove, though not without pain, and wield as weapons. Even acting as a form of protective shielding or armor by covering herself with it. She can utilize this power in many ways, including the creation of knuckle guards, spears, blades, rigid tendrils, bone claws, both fingernail & knuckle protrusions, and even projectile spikes. While with Weapon X, Sarah had more control of her protrusions. She could hide them to appear normal and form more complex shapes and of a higher quality similar to ivory. After having regained her powers under Volga's Power Restorative/Bestowal experimentation, Sarah had regained complete control over her power, possibly strengthening it even but at the cost of her sanity. Now Marrow not only had enough control over her power to appear more human, but could take her abilities to new heights.
	+ ***Bone Structure Durability:*** Her Skeletal bones seems to be also more durable than normal, as she had easily survived heavy hits on several body parts. For example, Flag-Smasher hit her twice with his mace on the head without creating much damage and Sabretooth threw her against a wall with no result on her inner bones. She also jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge twice (something that would often result in death or broken bones) without any major damage, being able to walk normally afterwards. Recently this aspect of her mutant gift has been taken to ridiculous extremes once growing numerous bone spikes all over her body and then ramming headlong into an equivalent of a sky borne albatross like a cannonball without much injury to her constructs.
* **Healing Factor** This power allows her to heal from the wounds she gives herself while removing the bones from her body. Her healing factor also grows her bones quickly and regenerates her bones when they need to be replaced.
	+ ***Enhanced Strength***
	+ ***Enhanced Agility***
	+ ***Enhanced Reflexes***
* **Dual Hearts:** She also possessed two hearts to compensate for her random bone growth, so when Storm ripped one out she was able to survive. It's possible that the first heart could have regrown due to the healing factor.

### Abilities

Proficiency at using blade-shaped bones as throwing weapons or in hand-to-hand combat. Marrow is an expert hand-to-hand combatant, specializing in street fighting.