Katherine Pryde was the daughter of Carmen and Theresa Pryde, and was born in Deerfield, Illinois.
According to the hologram of Operation Zero Tolerance's Shadowcat sub-file 604842, Katherine Pryde, as a baby, was abducted by a Neo and replaced by another baby who would grow as Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, of the X-Men. It was decided by the X-Men, who had been subjected to many similar holograms, to stand on the belief that they were nothing else than attempts to disturb them.
Early Years
Katherine "Kitty" Anne Pryde was leading the normal life of an extremely gifted thirteen year old girl in Deerfield, Illinois when she began suffering increasingly intense headaches. The headaches were a result of Kitty's mutant power emerging. Kitty possesses the ability to pass through solid matter.
Professor Charles Xavier located Kitty and set to recruit her for his school, and possibly as a new member of his X-Men. The Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club also learned about Kitty, and its White Queen, Emma Frost, went to invite Kitty to her Massachusetts Academy.
Visiting a local malt shop with some of the X-Men, Kitty and Storm began what would evolve into a close friendship. Suddenly, three Hellfire Knights burst into the shop in an attack led by the White Queen. The X-Men were overcome and taken as prisoners. Unwilling to abandon Storm and the others, Kitty hid aboard the Hellfire Club's hovercraft and found the captive X-Men in the Frost International complex where the White Queen was holding them. Storm gave Kitty the X-Men's phone number and asked her to summon help. Phoenix, Cyclops and Nightcrawler arrived in response of the message just in time to save her from Hellfire Club mercenaries. Phoenix comforted the frightened Kitty. Pryde then helped the X-Men in rescuing their captive colleagues. Afterwards, Kitty's father was furious at Xavier for the danger he believed he had placed his daughter in. Phoenix invasively used her mental powers to calm Carmen Pryde's rage.
X-Men
Kitty's parents allowed her to join Prof. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She became the newest member of the X-Men and Kitty spent a great deal of time training. During her first training session in the Danger Room, Kitty easily walked through a scenario that took Professor Xavier weeks to program. Storm christened Kitty with her first code name, Sprite, and took her to dancing lessons at Stevie Hunter’s studio. Kitty quickly developed a crush on Colossus, but was uncomfortable around the demon-like Nightcrawler.
Thirty years ahead in a possible future, Rachel Summers used her psionic powers to exchange the consciousness and spirit of the adult X-Man Kate Pryde with that of Pryde's teenage self. It was hoped that the adult Kate, in her younger self's body at that earlier time, could warn the X-Men about the assassination attempt on Senator Robert Kelly's life by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants so they could stop it, thereby preventing the chain of events that led to her dystopian future from occurring. After the X-Men saved Senator Kelly, Kate Pryde's consciousness left Kitty's body and returned to her own time, only to find her timeline had not changed. She had only created an alternate timeline.
Many adventures soon followed. On Christmas Eve, Kitty destroyed a N'Garai demon by herself when she was left alone in the mansion. Later, Kitty was almost kidnapped by deformed mutant Caliban. Caliban, who only sought friendship, returned to his underground home. Later, after Kitty stowed away on a X-Men mission, Kitty was nearly killed by Magneto. This act made Magneto finally come to realize that he was becoming no better than the Nazis who had murdered his family.
Emma Frost telepathically influenced Kitty's parents into transferring her to her Massachusetts Academy. Frost switched bodies with Storm. After Kitty and Ororo (in Emma’s body) freed the X-Men, Kitty returned to Xavier's.
Illyana Rasputin, Colossus' six year old sister, was kidnapped by Belasco and the X-Men followed to Limbo. While there, Kitty was harassed by an alternate version of Nightcrawler, and they rescued her. While returning to their dimension, Belasco grabbed Illyana and Kitty held her arm. Kitty lost her grip for a few seconds and reached back into the portal until she felt an arm and pulled out Illyana. Due to her captivity in Limbo, where she spent years while only mere moments elapsed on Earth, Illyana returned to them as a thirteen year old. Kitty and Illyana became very close and seemed to share a link, with Illyana even joining Kitty in Stevie's dance studio and becoming roommates.
When the alien Brood implanted embryos in all of the X-Men, Kitty met the small, alien, dragon-like creature Lockheed. While the X-Men were in space, Xavier formed a new team of mutants, the New Mutants, most of whose members were closer to Kitty in age than the other X-Men were. This time, he would only train them in the use of their special powers, and not send them out