Prior to enrolling at the Xavier Institute, Noriko Ashida lived on the street and was reliant on illegally obtained prescription drugs to reduce her highly accelerated mutant brain functions to a manageable rate. Since joining the Institute, Ashida has been equipped with two technological gauntlets to control and regulate her abilities. Having run away from her parents in Japan when her father refused to accept her genetic mutation, Ashida has demonstrated that she is prepared to rebel against authority if she deems it necessary. Nonetheless, Ashida recently helped to oppose a group of Xavier Institute students intent on freeing one of their fellow students, who had been apprehended by F.B.I. agents in the process of an investigation. Due to Ashida's conflicting past behavior, a conclusive prediction of her reaction to restrictive measures against mutants is not possible at this time. She soon became romantically involved with a fellow classmate, Prodigy.
Following the House of M|Scarlet Witch's reality warp, many of the students were de-powered, and several of those were slain in an attack by Reverend Stryker and his Purifiers. Emma Frost decided to choose a small group of students that would train to become X-Men, and Surge was appointed leader of this new group, also Nori received new, lighter, and more effective gauntlets from Forge. When William Stryker attacked the school, killing two more of the students, Elixir got revenge by killing Stryker himself. After finding out that the future Sentinel Nimrod was still alive and the former member of the New Mutants squad Icarus was revealed to be dead, Surge took on her role as team leader by deciding that they would destroy Nimrod once and for all after receiving a distress signal from Forge. While confronting the sentinal, Nori removed her gauntlets and poured all her power into Nimrod causing him to jaunt backwards in time. When she and the team returned to the mansion, Cyclops called her and David into his office. She expected to be yelled at, but instead she and David were praised for destroying the Sentinel that the X-men never got around to doing; Cyclops also accepted them as part of the core team of X-Men.
