Dani Moonstar

Dani, Little Cheyenne, Pocahontas, Psyche, Spellbinder, Mistress Moonstar (Nicknames)

### Relatives

William Lonestar (Father, Deceased)
Peg Lonestar (Mother, Deceased)
Black Eagle (Grandfather, Deceased)
Joshua Foley (Ward)

### Affiliation

X-Men (Member)
New Mutants (Member)
Exemplars (Mentor)

## Biographical Information

### Residence

X-Mansion
1407 Graymalkin Lane
Salem Center, NY

## Background

### 1985 - 2001: Danielle Moonstar

Danielle Moonstar is a Native American of the Cheyenne Nation. At a very young age, her mutant powers emerged but she could not control her ability to create visible images of people's greatest fears. Manifesting the images at unexpected moments alienated her from everyone in her community, except for her parents William & Peg Lonestar, & her grandfather, the chief & shaman Black Eagle.

One night, Dani created a symbolic vision of her parents' deaths. Shortly thereafter, Dani's parents disappeared during a trip to the mountains. After her parents' disappearance, she was taken in by their friends, the Roberts. Danielle became close friends with their son, Patrick. After living with them for a week, Pat made an unwanted sexual advance to her, causing Dani to lash out at him with her psychic power & the images of the objects of Pat's greatest fear appeared before him & his family. Dani then fled to the mountains before she was found her grandfather, who continued to raise her over the following years.

Knowing he could not help her with her powers, Black Eagle sent a letter to Professor Charles Xavier asking him to provide Dani with the training she needed to utilize her powers. Xavier happened to be an old friend Black Eagle. When Black Eagle told that she was going to leave with Xavier, she angrily refused, believing all Caucasians to be her enemies. In her anger, Moonstar unintentionally created an image of Black Eagle's death as he had foreseen it in a prophetic dream.

Before Professor Xavier & Karma arrived, Black Eagle was murdered by agents of Donald Pierce, a mutant hating fanatic. Pierce was determined to kill Xavier, as well as other superhuman mutants. Moonstar, unaware of Pierce's involvement, vowed to take vengeance for her grandfather's death. Moonstar soon found herself hunted by Pierce's agents, but she was saved by Xavier. For his help, she agreed to go with Xavier while also working get her revenge on Pierce.

### 2001 - 2004: Mirage

After a year of taking classes & helping Professor Xavier in tracking Pierce, she & the other young mutants he had recruited became members of a new team, the New Mutants. It was a group of young superhuman mutants whom Professor Xavier trained in the control & use of their powers at the Institute. Moonstar decided to remain with them to honor her grandfather's request, despite her initial hatred of all Caucasians & she soon came to regard her fellow teammates as close friends, regardless of their racial background. She particularly became close with Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane), in part due to the psychic rapport they shared when Wolfsbane was in non-human form. She originally was going to use the name Psyche, but later changed her codename to Mirage after the illusions she creates.

Despite her power, Dani was a valuable member of the team in her own right, being the only one to pass the team's first test in the Danger Room. Under the Professor's guidance, Moonstar not only learned how to keep her powers under control, so that she only used them when she so desired, but also learned how to use her powers to create images other than those of the objects of people's fears. With her strong leadership skills, Dani & Cannonball became the team's co-leaders.

### 2004 - 2010: Mirage

After the death of their teammate Cypher, team morale was down more than ever. Months later, Professor Xavier was outed as a mutant & the Xavier Institute was made public. Though many members rejoined the school, Dani was contacted by the international law enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D. & asked to infiltrate the Mutant Liberation Front (M.L.F.) as a deep cover operative & betray the group from within. To maintain her cover, Moonstar was forced to battle her old friends in New mutants alongside the other members of the M.L.F. She also secretly became an informant for Cable, at one time assisting him when he was tracking down a mutant terrorists. After S.H.I.E.L.D. took down the organization, Dani left the M.L.F. & joined X-Force for some time before returning to the X-Men.

Professor Xavier later asked her help in bringing mutant children to the school & also asked her to become a student advisor. She was hesitant to take him up on his offer, but agreed to bring in the potential students, recruiting Sofia Mantega, David Alleyne, Kevin Ford & Joshua Foley over the years. Dani even signed legal papers to become Josh's legal guardian after his family abandoned him.

During a confrontation with the Reavers, Kevin attempted to kill Donald Pierce & Dani was forced to use her powers to stop him. She began questioning her place at the institute & though she initially decided to leave, she agreed to stay & teach after all the kids she had recruited asked for her personally to become their advisor. When the school decided to incorporate training squads for the students to better hone their abilities, Dani became the adviser to the Exemplars Squad, made up of the youths she had recruited previously. She also began teaching history after getting her degree in the subject.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Mutant Physiology**
	+ ***Empathic Illusion Casting***: She has the power to create three-dimensional images of certain visual concepts from thoughts & emotional impressions within the minds of herself & others. Originally, she could only create images of the objects of other people's greatest fears but she learned how to reach into another person's subconscious & project an image of the object of that person's "heart's desire." She has learned to use her power to derive & project more specific images from another person's mind that were unrelated to such strong emotional states. Moreover, she knows how to project such images around herself & others in order to alter the appearance of herself & others. The three-dimensional images are similar to holograms, although they are created by psionic energy rather than by lasers & could be seen by anyone in their vicinity. However, only the people from whom Moonstar derived the images would perceive them as "real," indistinguishable from the real persons or objects they portrayed. To other people, the images were recognizable as immaterial illusions. Moonstar could use her power to derive & project mental images on several people at once. Each "victim" would see a different image, corresponding to their own individual concept of the kind of image that she sought.
	+ ***Neural Arrows***: She could focus her psionic powers into energy arrows which can stun an opponent by disrupting their central nervous system, or force them to relive a traumatic memory.
	+ ***Telepathy*:** Danielle has some semblance of telepathic ability. Despite that she has to probe a person's subconscious to discover the mental image to project, she isn't a true telepath.
	+ ***Animal Empathy***: Moonstar could achieve a quasi-telepathic rapport with higher animals including primates, members of the dog & cat families & birds. She could sense their feelings, consciously perceive images in their minds & even see through their eyes. However, since an animal's ability to conceptualize is highly limited, she was limited as to what she telepathically could learn from an animal.
* **Physicality:** Moonstar is a better than average athlete for her age, in large part because of all the times she has spent on her own in the wilderness. She has a fair knowledge of hand to hand combat, has enhanced durability & is a particularly good horseback rider and swimmer
* **Weaponry:** She primarily uses bow & arrows in battle but sometimes uses guns or swords.

### Ratings

* **Acumen:** 3 - Average / Basic
* **Might:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Quickness:** 3 - Average / Basic
* **Mysticism:** 1 - Nonexistent
* **Gagdetry:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Projection:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Tactics:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **Battle:** 5 - High / Exceptional
* **TOTAL:** 108 - Power Level 3 / General Threat

## Trivia

#### General

* She was 23 when she signed the legal papers to become Josh Foley's legal guardian.
* She has a few special arrows that she won in a bet against Hawkeye.
* She could use her power on a person even if he or she could only be seen by her through binoculars. However, she couldn't draw images from a person who was standing only a few feet from her, but behind something, she couldn't see through.
* She is a mentor of the Exemplars Squad. The current members are Wind Dancer, Surge, Icarus, Wallflower, Elixir & Plasma.

#### Relationships

* Dani's boyfriend Justin Pierce is related to mutant hating terrorist Donald Pierce (her grandfather's murderer) & HYDRA's high ranking officer Alexander Pierce.
* She has a friendly rivalry with Cannonball. He also has expressed a romantic interest in her, leading to them having kissed about a handful of times. Though half of them happened when they were drunk.
* Her best friend is Amara Aquilla, aka Magma. They enrolled at the Institute during the same year. Along with Wolfsbane & Karma, the four were very close.
* She used to be very close friends with Wolfsbane, aka Rahne Sinclair. They became close in part due to the psychic rapport they shared when Wolfsbane was in non-human form. After Rahne's relationship with the under-age Joshua (who is also Dani's ward) came to light, their friendship ended.

## Notes

* The original character of Mirage belongs to the Marvel Universe.