Background[]
Danielle Moonstar is a Native American of the Cheyenne Nation. Moonstar's mutant powers emerged at puberty, 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 and Peg Lonestar, and her grandfather, the chief and 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. Moonstar believed them to have been killed and her dreams were haunted, thereafter, by a vision of a demonic bear, whom she believed to be responsible for their deaths. In fact, Moonstar's parents had been transformed into the demonic bear by an as yet unrevealed cause. This bear intended to work the same transformation upon Moonstar, but the spells of Black Eagle kept the demonic bear away from her.
After her parents' disappearance, Moonstar was taken in by their friends, the Roberts. Danielle became close friends with their son, Pat. After she had been at the Roberts' home a week, Moonstar was at Sunday dinner with them, when Pat said something to her that provoked her. Moonstar lashed out at him with her psychic power and the images of the objects of Pat's greatest fear and desire appeared before Pat and his family. Moonstar fled to the mountains, where Black Eagle raised her over the following years.