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WHO: Archangel and Moonstar
WHERE: Big courtyard
WHEN: Friday morning (backdated a few hours...)
WARNINGS: I don't think there needs to be any
SUMMARY: Dani has powers again. What are they?
FORMAT: Paragraph to start

Dani had been up a few hours already, taking refuge in the quiet of her first morning in the City. Back in the City apparently. Careful not to disturb anyone else sleeping, Dani took in the look and feel of the mansion, where a number of other X-mutants had found themselves a place to live. Other worlds she's dealt with before. She could even handle and had friends who were from alternate dimensions. But to have so many different people from so many different times be in one place at once was overwhelming and made Dani think there was a deeper purpose for having everyone meet at this point. Maybe there wasn't. But this place was pushing for something and Dani couldn't tell if it was good or bad. She sighed, trying not to get mired in her thoughts. She'd take a walk and then meet with Warren at the courtyard.

Dani was troubled by the news of the Goblin Queen's presence but since no one thought they should do anything before there was real trouble, she needed to keep her old routines of constant training and practice. She was used to pushing herself physically, especially after the changes from M-Day but to know she had some type of power back...she'd feel a lot better knowing she could get on the field if she had to. She broke into a jog, taking an easy mile to the courtyard where she'd meet Warren. Already she'd started planning. His style was pretty varied in range but the biggest problem would be keeping him on the ground for hand to hand. The rest...well she'd start with what she had in the beginning.

"Good morning Warren," Dani called, ready in case he'd start the day with a bang.

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He heard her call from far up, and swooped down backwards and out of the sky toward her. Warren was always the early bird, and had already been out flying for the past couple of hours. It was a bit of a routine that he had.

"Dani," he greeted as he lowered. "Nice to see you in person again."

"Show off," Dani replied with a grin. "It's good to see you too."

As he landed, Dani felt a bit of trepidation. "Are you sure about this?"

Warren gave a quick nod as his feet touched the pavement. There wasn't much Dani could do to harm him, really; he was durable and had a healing factor, and she couldn't possibly do anything worse with her mind than he'd already had done to him whilst here. Warren wasn't too worried, and he also trusted Dani.

"Really, it's not a problem. Though I wouldn't mind a better explanation of what you had before M-Day. It was psionic, right? You were able to manifest people's fears?"

Dani took a breath, collecting herself and trying to see if she could still reach that part of herself that was pure power of the mind.

"I appreciate it Warren," Dani nodded as she continued, "that's pretty much it in a nutshell. It wasn't as strong as it was while I was in X-Force but I could still project pretty realistic images. For a while I could actually use that power and turn it into a mental arrow, one that could knock you out on the physical plane or just make you relive your worst nightmare."

Dani wasn't sure but she thought she could feel a telepathic reserve just there. Waiting.

Relive his worst nightmare. Well, that didn't sound very promising now did it? It wouldn't be the first time it happened though, and it wasn't like Warren's worst nightmare wasn't already public knowledge to most people. It would just be the recent events surrounding said nightmare that would be new to Dani; she'd have to find out sometime though, right?

"How real is it? Is it just something I see or does it physically manifest in the sense that it could hurt us?" That was the important question. Warren's worst nightmare - his Horseman encounters - were very violent, and he didn't want Dani getting hurt.

Dani took a moment to assess Warren. He was trusting her completely and she hoped she wouldn't let him down.

"With an arrow, it would be something you see on your own. But it would feel completely real, every sensation coursing through you. You experience it all."

"As for a physical manifestation, at one point I was able to manifest the greatest wish or greatest fear, especially if it could be a tool. I can only do it one at a time though."

Dani took another minute to stretch. She considered Warren's look and added, "I try to make myself very hard to kill."

[ooc: crashing to bed...catch up tomorrow! <33333]

"Look," he began and rubbed a hand through his hair. "I have a pretty good idea what you'd find in my head. Chances are if you pull it out..."

Oh boy, how to word this?

"Something happened back home recently that enabled me to switch back and forth between my normal self and my old Horseman form. I can't go into specifics, but since everyone knows about it here already there's no point in holding it back anymore. So if you yank this fear out, there's a good chance that I'll 'shift, just so you know and there's no surprises."

It wasn't likely that he'd hurt her, really, but the chances of him freaking out were high and he didn't want her to be unprepared for that considering it'd probably look rather freaky.

[ooc: no problema, bb, good night!]

Dani raised her eyebrows. He could do that now? Well, that didn't really matter here. She'd never seen Angel's Horseman form up close. If this worked, she'd have to get ready to deal with it here.

"I understand your concern Warren and appreciate the warning. I'll be careful. But you've got control in that form right? We're sparring," Dani concluded.

"I should be able to deal with whatever comes. Fair warning to you, I've still got knives on me."

"Most of the time, yeah. I've been training with the team like that everyday, so I'm getting better," he assured. That was true enough, too, so long as he didn't get raging pissed everything definitely was under control. Since Dani shouldn't have been able to make him that mad, Warren wasn't concerned about it.

"I know you're a good fighter. Don't worry about holding back on me either; I heal," he told her. "So...whenever you're ready we can start."

Warren was right, they weren't going to get anywhere if they were just going to keep warning each other about what to expect. Dani took a deep breath. Released it.

Without warning, Dani ran towards him straight on. The first thing to do was neutralize his flying ability. She leaped, using his shoulders to balance her flip over to get behind him and hit the wings just where they were coming from, making it painful to fly.

She had always fought hand-to-hand. It was usually a reliable start.

The wings were a lot stronger than they looked though. Warren didn't fly, but he did drop to a squat to relieve himself of the blows. Using the natural strength of said wings, he flapped them fast enough to create a gust of wind at Dani that could carry most heavyset men right off of their feet. It was an old school style of defense Warren used to use a lot as a kid that gave him time to get back on his feet and recuperate.

Missing her mark, Dani let herself go with the direction of the wind to use it to her advantage rather than have it knock her down. Landing yards away into a crouch, Dani assessed her opponent wondering if he would give away any physical openings.

His legs? Dani wondered. But that would still leave his wings, which had the longest extension. Quickly reaching with her mind, she tapped into the power that she thought she felt reaching to create an image of Warren's greatest fear. It would hopefully distract him and Dani could try knocking him out instead.

As soon as Dani had been swept off, Warren jumped back to his feet and turned around to run at her again. He didn't make it very far though; the moment he'd stepped forward he saw Wolfsbane.

'Kill the angel' her voice growled through open fangs, dripping with blood as her eyes glowed bright red; Warren was reliving the day she had chewed off his wings. In seconds he was on the ground and thinking he was hitting her off, but he couldn't. Rahne was nearly 12 feet tall and over 200 pounds in that form, and Warren wasn't strong enough to stop her. She'd have him pinned and would rip his wings clean from his shoulders.

It was just like it used to be. In fact, even better than before. More like the time she'd come back from Asgard, where she'd learned how to better augment her mutant powers from her Valkyrie sisters. Dani tried not to get distracted by a well of relief springing in her. She had her powers back. But how much of it, she didn't know.

Dani shook her head, realizing that she had just wasted precious seconds in her astonishment. But the vision had to leave its effect anyway. Warren would be off balance and Dani had to hit at the moment he was weakest. She took off, looking to gain some momentum before trying to hit Warren with a hard kick to his head and a punch to his solar plexus.

Rahne did look ferocious that way, Dani thought. And that was a pretty big fear, she concluded. Losing his wings.

Dani's hits barely registered in his mind, and only made Warren topple over clumsily. To him, he was seeing Rahne, bloodied and with feathers hanging out of her mouth. Then he was being surrounded by Warpath, X-23, and Wolverine. They thought he was a threat. They wanted to fight and take him down.

Warren just wanted his wings back, that's it.

As Warren toppled Dani narrowed her eyes, frustrated that she hadn't done more than just seemingly tap him. She had to hit him in the more sensitive areas--windpipe, kidneys, another shot at the head.

But he was so caught up in the vision. Was he really hurting but not responding because he was so trapped in the illusion? Dani wondered how long it would last.

Dani looked at the figures surrounding Warren. Time to try something new. Reaching into the vision, she tried to control the figures to try and get them to cause some physical damage instead of just emotional.

They were going to attack, just like that day he lost his wings. Warren sensed it, and the exact moment they lunged forward he'd had enough. The fear was too much for his psyches to handle, and Warren quickly transformed into his techno-organic form to fend them off. Dozens of blades emerged from his wings, and he started shooting them off toward the 'threats'.

Dani opened her eyes in time to see some of Warren's blades coming towards her. Stupid, stupid, Dani berated herself as she twisted to avoid getting deeply cut or embedded with a razor sharp blade. She winced a little as she ducked out of range, feeling a nick along her left arm. This was unbelievable. She was getting hurt from her own attack. If only she could knock him down with a long range weapon.

As the thought came to her, she could feel something in her hand. Dani looked down to see an outline of a familiar bow, getting more solid as she focused on it. She stared at it in disbelief. She was making something tangible! Dani tried not to let the shock overwhelm her, looking at the arrows on the ground. But she didn't want them. She would try to hit Warren with neural ones.

Taking care to avoid Warren's blades, Dani tried to take position on some higher ground. Aiming for his back once again, Dani hoped to use one of her neural arrows to disrupt his control of his wings. But his wings seemed fuller. And it seemed like Dani would have to bring them down one section at a time. With focus and quick movement, Dani sent arrows flying.

Dani was really an afterthought, thankfully, so she'd most definitely be able to avoid the blades as long as they didn't ricochet. Warren was aiming for 'Wolverine' and 'Warpath'; his mind was much more fragile in this body so even the briefest of frights kept him hallucinating and defensive.

However, the arrows would do nothing against his wings. Even Elixir's omega level powers couldn't affect a single bit of the nerves and genetic make up of those suckers. If Dani could hit Warren anywhere else, the trick would work. For now though, she still had blades to duck because Archangel wasn't stopping.

Okay, the arrows weren't doing anything against the wings. Time to change targets. Warren was still shooting blades at the visionary figures around him and Dani didn't even feel that much pressure from keeping them where they were, surrounding Warren.

She couldn't even get close enough for a passing hit before sending another arrow his way, this time aiming for his head or his torso. Dani was looking to knock the guy unconscious.

Head shot it was! It was so quiet that Warren didn't even pick up on the sound of it coming through the air, and it struck just below his ear on the left side of his head. In that instant his body froze up and he dropped to the ground. Because Archangel was much thicker skinned and durable than regular old Angel was, he didn't go completely out cold. However, he was stunned, dazed, and completely oblivious to what the hell was going on--not to mention he couldn't move.

He was down for the count; Dani won.

It was over. Not a pretty bad morning to start the day. And she had powers again. The ones she had grown up with most of her life. It was one of the best things she'd gained coming (back) into this City.

Dani jogged over to where Warren was laying, making sure to clear and residual psionic powers she'd projected. She peered over Warren.

"Thank you. That was exactly what I needed."

"Unnngh," Warren groaned and blinked up at her. "You scared the shit out of me."

That was all he could manage to say while he was still collecting his thoughts. He'd be okay though; unfortunately for him, all of his time spent with X-Force back home had trained him fairly well in getting over his fears and back to work.

"Sorry about that," Dani answered. She offered a hand to help him sit up slowly. "My projections are never less than extreme."

Squatting down, Dani tried to read Warren's face. Professor Charles had made it clear that she had to learn other ways to use fear-based powers positively. But he was tough guy and Dani didn't think she'd have much to worry about.

"But you faced it head on. Caught me a little off guard with your blades."

Warren kept his gaze on her easily, not put off enough at all to have to look away. "I'm more of a punch first, cry later kind of guy," he joked.

Not that he would be too worked up about this later. Hell, he had the same nightmares about this shit every night as it was, so he could most definitely deal with it just fine.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Sorry to try and pry," Dani answered easily. "While I was in school I thought I could be a therapist before becoming a teacher. My powers can bring up some pretty intense reactions."

Dani grinned in relief and in reply to the joke. "That'll just get you into a different type of trouble," she answered.

Gesturing toward her arm, she shrugged. "Just a cut. I don't think I'll need stitches. But I am going to try to not get on your bad side. Like...ever."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Warren chuckled a little bit before finally forcing himself to power down and shift back. It was a bit of a strain from the stress, but he managed okay after a minute or so.

"Anyways, you did just fine. Did you at least figure out all you needed to, you think?"

Dani loosened her muscles, not realizing how tense she had been about this spar. She hadn't known what to expect as her power. But it was a relief to know that it wasn't something new and completely different.

"I think so. I'm pretty sure I've got everything back. Even the arrows," Dani said thoughtfully. "I'll have to figure out the rest in real battle."

"X-Men have training everyday, too," Warren explained as he pulled himself to his feet finally. "Scott's been pushing everyone to work as extensively as possible, so even if you don't get a real fight soon, you'll still have plenty of opportunity to work on them."

Dani also rose, taking a second to feel a stretch in her legs as she thought about what Warren said. She wondered how different it would be here compared to what she did home. Well, back home she wouldn't have had her powers. A big change already.

"That's a good idea. I'm going with Cable for his trip this week but I'm sure I'd love the practice. It's for all X-Men? No other Imports?"

Edited 2010-01-31 09:31 (UTC)

"Just the team, yeah," Warren nodded at her and folded his arms over his chest. "We do have other imports teaching and boarding there, but the team is still just us."

Dani smiled fondly. "It's still a family. A large and completely dysfunctional family."

Edited 2010-02-01 14:24 (UTC)

"Definitely still a family even if we are missing some faces," Warren agreed with a grin. "People come and go here a lot though. Who's here today may not be who's left two months from now, but someone entirely different. Me and Sam have been here the longest and since then I swear I've just about seen everyone at least once."

"That must be hard," Dani said, "dealing with people who keep going back and forth that way."

Dani winced, "Or come back again and don't remember being here in the first place. Does the teamwork change with the Import turnover?"

"Sometimes, it really is," Warren admitted, recalling specifically when he'd been dating Psylocke and she'd been ported out, and then Dazzler getting ported out later. Then there was Cameron Hodge who'd been here, and that was even worse than losing people at all. "In a way you start to get used to it if you're stuck here long enough, but it's definitely still hard."

Hell, Warren had been ported out once before himself, and he remembered distinctly how messed up it'd been to be home for four years, but only missing in this timeline for less than two days. It was a head trip.

"You better believe the team dynamic changes though. We once went from 3 members to 10 to 20 and then back down to 8 and up to 18 again. We're constantly changing it up which is why the daily training is so important."

"Do you feel like there's a reason that people keep coming here?" Dani asked. The conversation she had with a guy over the Network when she had arrived had been bothering her. What would you do with a machine that was just malfunctioning? Just transporting people without rhyme or reason? Philosophically, it was just another way life could suddenly change for you. But a part of Dani couldn't help but question and fight back. Just like on M-Day. And there hadn't been any easy answers then either.

She lightened at Warren's description of team changes. Well, it was like that back at home too sometimes.

"Daily training won't be a problem. I'm glad we're keeping that for the team. Any big surprises I should look out for?"

"No one knows why, how, when, or who," Warren told her with a sigh. It'd been a question people had been asking for as long as he remembered being in this dimension, and they were still no where closer to getting any answers. It was just one of those things that were beyond his logic and understand. Some people were even brought here for a few days before vanishing again forever, while some others had been brought in and out four or five times now. It was insane.

"As for training, it's pretty much the same as back home. Working on powers, hand-to-hand, team strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. It's pretty well balanced, Cyke makes sure of it."

Dani echoed his sigh. "Somehow, I knew that was going to be your answer."

For all intents and purposes, Dani knew it could have been worse. And she wouldn't have had powers probably anywhere else. Well, with the exception of Asgard. It was just...strange. Strange and disconcerting. Dani couldn't feel anything different about the planet, it just wasn't hers.

"I didn't get a chance to ask him, but is Jean...Phoenix?"

Jean was just a whole other complication! Thankfully, not a bad complication, so Warren shook his head. "Not that I know of. She's actually from a completely different universe than ours, so I'm not sure the Phoenix even exists there, to be completely honest with you. Or maybe it's something different entirely?"

That was also a possibility, yes? Warren thought so. "As someone who's quite familiar with our world's Phoenix - seeing how Jean's my best friend - I can honestly say that this Jean seems a lot more collected. Calmer. She's similar in a lot of ways, but still a different person. It's really weird."

But as nice as that Jean was, Warren missed his Jean like he'd miss a limb.

Dani nodded. Jean wasn't someone she was as concerned about as the Goblin Queen but it never hurt to be careful. The Phoenix had a complicated history. She paused at Warren's reference of a Jean from a different universe. And tried not to get to fixated on that detail. It was the usually in this City.

"That's quite an understatement," Dani replied. "But since you're used to this universe weird, this Jean has to be extra weird."

There had been weirder things to happen, to be honest. Being turned into a woman for three days came to Warren's mind.

"It's only weird because..." Warren trailed off and tried to figure out how to explain it properly. "Imagine Xi'an was ported here, only this Xi'an lived her life as an X-Man and relatively low key...and had no idea who you were. It's not that Jean herself is weird, but when your best friend has no clue who you are...?"

Well, Warren was sure Dani caught his drift.

Dani couldn't even imagine what it would've been like if Shan hadn't been a part of the New Mutants she'd grown up with under Professor Xavier. When she thought Shan was dead had been hard enough, but what Warren was describing was...yeah, weird.

"I see what you mean," she sighed. "I miss her already."

"She could come back, too," Warren pointed out. It'd only been a few months since she'd left. "It definitely wouldn't be the first time, right?"

Dani sent Warren a grateful grin. "I guess she could. And I guess it wouldn't."

"Exactly," he sent the smile right back. "So just keep your chin up about it. It gets easier."

"Those'll be some famous last words Warren," Dani quipped. "But I'll take it."

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