BIOGRAPHY - Page 2
The school year ended on an awkward note, with Wolverine brainwashed by Hydra and killing Northstar on the school grounds. Elixir tried and failed to save the teacher's life with his powers. Prom rolled around, but Josh was unable to get a date and Noriko was the only member of his squad even really talking to him. Josh took some consolation from Magma returning to the school at prom time, thanking him for his impulsive efforts months ago awakening her from her coma. Laurie got the wrong idea seeing Josh talking with another older woman, and used her powers to make David kiss her in front of Josh. As the divides between the New Mutants continued to grow, Sofia got them all together in a campout. Grievances were aired and the team hashed out their differences. Josh told Laurie his feelings for her were sincere and Rahne had been right to break off their relationship once she saw the two of them together. Laurie wasn't ready to date Josh again after what happened, but agreed to be friends again. Josh and David also put aside their issues, and the New Mutants seemed ready to enter the new school year together. [New X-Men: Academy X #13-15, Yearbook #1]
Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. [House of M (1st series) #8] M-Day struck the mutant community, leaving Moonstar, Sofia and David among the Decimated. On top of that, Kevin Ford momentarily believed ALL mutants had lost their powers and withered Laurie's arm while grabbing her in joy. Elixir was struck by his failure to help in the crisis. He couldn't restore the dead tissue in Laurie's arm or reactivate the powers of his friends like he once did for Wolfsbane. Beast reported 
that the X-gene wasn't merely suppressed in the Decimated mutants; it was completely missing. The X-Men circled their wagons after M-Day, sending away many of the now human former mutants and students. Dani and Sofia were among the first who left. Even though Moonstar was Josh's legal guardian, she agreed he would be better protected at the mansion rather than out in the increasingly hostile world with her. [New X-Men (2nd series) #20-22]
Out of the remaining twenty-five students at the Xavier Institute, Emma Frost chose to assemble an X-Men training squad specifically for potential combat situations and defense of both the school and the rest of the student body. Among those who remained, Elixir and Surge of the New Mutants joined Julian Keller and the surviving Hellions as this new X-Men squad, along with Wolverine's genetic descendent, X-23. Despite this selection, Josh suffered one setback after 
another. The Decimated former students were snuck out of the mansion under cover of night to send them to safety, but William Stryker and the Purifiers knew about the movement, and destroyed the student buses with a rocket strike. Josh waded in among the bodies of his friends, but was unable to save any of the victims. Icarus was also mutilated by the Purifiers, but refused to let Josh lay hands on him when he returned to the mansion in shock after losing his wings.
Josh was falling apart over his inability to save his friends, which he saw as a personal failure. After being manhandled by Colossus during a training session, Josh struck Piotr from behind after 
the session was over, screaming about the senior X-Men not doing more to save the students. A furious Emma Frost disciplined Elixir and removed him from the team. The final blow came when Josh and Laurie argued on the quad. Laurie tried to console Josh about how his healing touch kept failing, but Josh lashed out at her. He told Laurie she didn't understand how it felt when someone died in your arms, and told her to stay away from him. Moments later, a Purifier sniper named Matthew Risman shot Laurie Collins through the head, murdering her at Josh's feet. [New X-Men (2nd series) #23-25]
Josh was beside himself with grief as Laurie was brought to the growing morgue inside the mansion infirmary. Reverend Stryker and the Purifiers pressed their advantage and lay siege to the mansion hours later. Other students died that night, and the conflict finally drew Elixir out of the infirmary and away from Laurie. Josh was able to sneak up behind Stryker and grab hold of him. The rage and hatred he felt unlocked the greater potential of Josh's Omega-level control over 
organic molecules. He created an exotic form of decay and putrefaction that consumed William Stryker, destroying his body and killing the bigot with a touch. Using his power in this way caused Elixir's spotless golden skin to turn black, however, and the inner turmoil over becoming a killer caused Josh to collapse into a fugue state. [New X-Men (2nd series) #26-27]
Josh spent the next few days in the infirmary, dead to the world. The other new X-Men discovered Stryker had been guided by Nimrod, a wrecked mutant hunter robot from the future. With Stryker dead, Nimrod sought out Forge to force the mutant tinkerer to rebuild him. The X-Men defeated 
Nimrod, but X-23 was injured beyond even her healing factor's ability to cope with. Hellion brought her back to the mansion for Elixir to heal. Julian managed to shake Josh out of his stupor, and Elixir turned from black to gold again as he used his powers to heal Laura, fully restoring her to health. Josh could never again see himself as just a healer, and this was represented by black splotches on his skin, constantly moving around as a symbol of his potential to kill. [New X-Men (2nd series) #31]
Josh's ordeals left him with a desire to improve upon his abilities. He had instinctively healed and reorganized organic matter in the past without fully understanding what he was doing with his powers. Hoping to expand his horizons if he consciously understood the subject, Elixir went to Hank McCoy for lessons on biology, anatomy and physiology. Beast provided Josh with all the medical textbooks and resources he could require, but the long, tedious process of studying proved daunting to Elixir. [New X-Men (2nd series) #33,35]
Soon, Josh decided to skip the traditional way of learning. He had the Stepford Cuckoos mentally link him to Beast and transfer all Hank McCoy's medical and biological knowledge to him telepathically. With his expanded awareness, Josh's first act was to correct David's vision. His second act was far more complicated, as the students were kidnapped to Limbo by Belasco, the demon-sorcerer. Searching for his lost charge Illyana Rasputina, an infuriated Belasco reached 
into David's chest and ripped out his still beating heart. Elixir reached his best friend in moments and went to work with his newfound expertise. Josh summoned stray organic molecules from the environment, conjuring a human heart from memory and rebuilding David's entire chest cavity on the fly. He did not, technically, resurrect the dead, per se, but it was a difference of millimeters. [New X-Men (2nd series) #37-39]
In the aftermath, Josh sat in his room dwelling on what he was now capable of doing. If he could sense cell division, cell death… could he also stop it? Was he immortal? Could he make others immortal? If life and death were no longer constants to him did they really even matter? Elixir's ruminations played with physical consequences, as waves of black and gold flickering over his skin with his mood, foreshadowing the dire ramifications of his pending decision. Then, he was visited by Alani Ryan. Formerly Loa of Alpha Squadron, Alani was a cute teenaged girl from Hawaii who thought he was cute and wanted to make out. Josh Foley decided to put off his metaphysical existential crisis for... y'know, like, later. [New X-Men (2nd series) #42-43]
Mutants for good and evil began to mobilize after M-Day. The Marauders and the Acolytes joined forces to prepare for what was to come. Sinister and Exodus intended to blind the X-Men to the future by eliminating their time travelers, precogs and prophets. The student Blindfold foresaw the Acolytes coming to the mansion and subjected herself to Josh's touch, seemingly committing 
suicide. Exodus arrived and scanned the minds of Josh and the new X-Men, concluding Blindfold had killed herself out of fear. Once the Acolytes left, however, David observed that Ruth had touched both the black and gold portions of Josh's skin before saying "thank you." He reasoned that Ruth wasn't dead, but wanted the attackers to think she was. Josh, David, and Kitty Pryde were able to use triage and Josh's powers to bring Ruth back from her deep stasis. [X-Men (2nd series) #201-203]
The war over the first new mutant birth since M-Day flared up soon after. Nano-Sentinels were used to turn the O*N*E mechs at the mansion against the X-Men, and Josh was knocked out by debris. As a result, his healing abilities were unavailable to the casualties that followed. Cable escaped into the future with the child Hope, but the X-Men disbanded in the aftermath. [Messiah CompleX crossover]