BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Eventually, Dani returned to her home in Colorado but soon became involved with Xavier’s school again when she learned of the plight of a young mutant in nearby Denver. Young Sofia Mantega had been sent to her father, who didn’t want her. After being ignored by her father and ridiculed by her fellow students for months, she snapped and used her mutant powers to control the wind to cause havoc at one of her father’s supermarkets. Her father was willing to leave her in jail but Dani interceded and got him to agree that she could take Sofia to Xavier’s school.
As, in the meantime, Xavier’s school had gone public, there were a great many new mutant students. Seeing Dani’s good instincts with Sofia and a fellow student, Laurie Collins, Xavier suggested Dani become a teacher at the institute. Dani was unwilling at first, Xavier instead asked her to contact several mutants located by Cerebra in his name. Dani recruited two more kids and along the way was reunited with fellow former New Mutant, Xi’an Coy Manh. [New Mutants (2nd series) #1-4]
She intended to recruit another youth, Josh Foley, but found that he - unaware of being a mutant himself - had joined the mutant-hating Reavers, led by Donald Pierce. Dani’s new mutants and the Reavers got into a fight and, when Laurie was injured by Pierce, one of the kids, Kevin Ford, used his lethal touch on Pierce, intending to kill him. Dani only managed to make him stop by showing Kevin the illusion that he was killing Laurie instead. While that did the trick, Kevin was so shook up that he decided to leave the school. Dani intended to leave as well, as she felt like a failure, but Xavier showed her that she was anything but. Xavier then implemented a new tutorial system and all of Dani’s recruits, including former Reaver, Josh, chose Dani as their tutor. Dani decided to stay and, next to her duties as supervisor of her students, she also began to teach American history. [New Mutants (2nd series) #5-6]
Secretly, though, Josh was hoping that his parents would soon pick him up. Unfortunately, when they finally visited Xavier’s school, things turned out quite different. They didn’t want a mutant for a son and 
gave up custody, naming the school his legal guardian. However, the papers needed to be signed by a real person and, knowing what it felt like to come to Xavier’s school without family, Danielle signed them, becoming Josh’s legal guardian. Despite him being a troublemaker, Dani wouldn’t give up on her ward, explaining to him that, if she rode him too hard, it was because that is what parents are supposed to do.
Another problem was her recently returned old friend and teammate, Rahne Sinclair. Having lost her powers after being shot at with a neutralizer gun, she was playing rebel without a cause. 
Their telepathic bond, being based on Danielle’s rapport with animals, was also disrupted, making it hard for her to understand what was going on in her friend. Actually, Rahne had often wished for her powers to be gone over the years but, when her wish was finally granted, she found herself unable to defend her adoptive mother from a terrorist attack. When Rahne confided in Josh what was troubling her, he used his healing powers to re-activate her powers. Immediately, her animal nature got the better of her, slashing Josh’s gut and running away, but Dani managed to track down her friend and help her to come to terms with herself. [New Mutants (2nd series) #7-12]
When Xavier left the school, Emma Frost became co-headmistress together with her lover, Scott Summers. Remembering her only too well from her villain days as the Hellfire Club’s White Queen, Dani didn’t get along with Emma and, before long, their feud carried over to the two training squads tutored by them, the New Mutants and the Hellions. Even worse, when Dani wanted to
bring Kevin Ford back to the school, she needed Emma’s help to operate Cerebra and pinpoint his location. It was Emma who convinced the boy to return but, only a few days later, the FBI arrived, intending to arrest him for apparently killing his own father. At first, Dani was against turning him over to the authorities but eventually was convinced otherwise. Surprisingly, the court declared the death of Kevin’s father and accident and he was allowed to return to Xavier’s, though the damage was done. He no longer trusted Danielle one bit and asked to be transferred to Emma’s squad. The incident still had a pleasant side-effect for Danielle, as she became romantically involved with Justin Pierce, the FBI agent assigned to the case. [New X-Men (2nd series) #1-6]
A few weeks later, the teaching staff was informed of the inappropriate relationship between Josh Foley and Wolfsbane. They had been secretly seeing each other for quite a while and, even though Rahne had already ended the romance weeks ago, she was considered no longer fit to be a teacher at the Institute. Despite her feelings of betrayal and disappointment, Dani would have wanted for Rahne to stay, but she left the school anyway, leaving things unresolved between the former soulmates. [New X-Men (2nd series) #12]
Not long thereafter, the somewhat deranged Scarlet Witch tampered with reality, causing the tragedy known as M-Day, during which over 90% of Earth’s mutant population were rendered 
powerless. Moonstar was among the thousands of mutants to be de-powered without warning, and having no clue as to who was responsible for the new situation. [House of M #8]
In the wake of the Decimation, the Xavier Institute was being turned into a safe haven for the few remaining mutants, so the X-Men decided that all depowered staff members and students had to leave, as they didn’t want to place them in any dangerous situation. Emma Frost personally saw to it that Danielle was fired and left the school as soon as possible. [New X-Men (2nd series) #20, 22]
Dani took the loss of her powers pretty hard, but she participated in an interview with reporter Sally Field, who was writing down the stories of the depowered mutants. [Generation M #5] 
Some time later, Moonstar was offered a new job with the Initiative, a training program for legally registered super-heroes. One of the trainees, a teenager named Trauma, had powers quite similar to those Dani used to have. At first, Trauma didn’t want to have anything to do with her, but Danielle pretty soon convinced him that he could benefit from her training. [Avengers: The Initiative #3]
During the short time Dani worked with Trauma, she made great progress in helping him with his abilities, believing that he could become one of the world's greatest behavior therapists. Unfortunately, Peter Henry Gyrich wasn't impressed with the calm attitude that Dani had helped Trauma develop and took him from Dani, placing Trauma in active combat, despite Dani's protests. However, when Trauma proved less powerful in the field than Gyrich was hoping, Gyrich arranged for Dani's role at Camp Hammond to be terminated. This didn't bother Dani too much, as she felt she had succeeded in training Trauma and had begun to disagree with what was happening to some of the trainees at Camp Hammond. [Avengers: The Initiative #5, 9]
Moonstar returned to Boulder, Colorado, where she soon found herself under attack by several former students of the Xavier Institute and other young mutants, all of whom were, unbeknownst
to them, being manipulated by Donald Pierce. Moonstar was held captive for a time until the Young X-Men, as the group were called, worked with other former New Mutants to defeat Pierce. In the aftermath, Cyclops decided that young mutants still needed proper guidance, and tasked Dani and Sunspot with being mentors to the Young X-Men. Dani was chosen because Cyclops wanted to show her that even without her powers she was still a hero. The group also relocated to be with the rest of the X-Men in San Francisco. [Young X-Men #2-6] There, Dani was surprised at how times had changed, with mutants openly welcome in the progressive city. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #503]