Somebody was following him, and Danny would've brushed it off had he not realized that he was being trailed by somebody very, very familiar.

He wasn't really one for acting all terrified of something he knew was a projection of sorts, though. There was no possible way the man was alive after all these years. Danny had seen to it - he was a very mortal, and now very dead man.

It didn't stop the shiver of fear up his spine when suddenly a figure blocked the exit out of the alleyway and hissed, "Hello, Daniel. Did you miss me? I see that you're not quite dead after all these years. Let's see if I can fix that, hmm?"

Danny backed away, making a little sound of frustration as he moved straight into a trash can, nearly tripping. The lid fell off and clattered against the stone ground, and he scrambled backwards, away from the approaching phantom. With a barely shaking hand, he reached into his coat, pulling out his rather large knife. The approaching figure clucked its tongue, saying almost patronizingly, "Aw, would you look at that. Little Daniel has grown into a big boy."

"Screw you, Mitchell," Danny snarled, and snapped the fingers of his left hand. It started to crackle faintly with electricity, emitting a faint glow that lit up the dark alley. But his hands were shaking, and he knew, he knew that this apparition wasn't real, but he couldn't squash the bit of doubt that said maybe his father's killer, and the cause of his first rebirth, couldn't die just like him.

"WhoaaaaAAAAAARGH"

There was a cluttering sound in the alleyway as Mirror made a well timed but poorly executed entrance via the fire escape, closely followed by half a dozen very large spiders. The cluttering sound resulted from the mirrorwalker tripping during her tactical retreat and rolling down the last flight of stairs before she paused to dangle for a few seconds and land in a trash container, archery gear and all.

"Umph."

The spiders loomed on the walls of the alleyway as Maya scrambled out of the trash can and landed with a flip on the ground, adjusting the quiver on her hip and checking her bow.

"Mother..." she muttered before she noticed Danny and the other figure "Oh hi there Danny boy. In the mood for a spider hunt? I see you have company..."

She was. Totally cool. Not scrambled at all. A banana peel slid off her hair and landed on the ground with a splat.

"Brought a friend, Daniel?" the apparition said pleasantly, and Danny curled his lips up into a snarl before glancing back to see the source of the clattering noises behind him.

"Oh hi there Danny boy. In the mood for a spider hunt? I see you have company..." Oh, look. Mirror again, but this time as Maya, not Gawain. And then he saw past her and realized why, exactly, she had toppled into the trash can in a rather ungainly way. And ugh, spiders. Danny had a policy that anything that naturally had more than four legs deserved to die a horrible death, and spiders were no exception. He marched towards where Maya was in the trash can and hoisted himself onto the fire escape, randomly nabbing an arrow from her quiver as he went. Thank god she carried metal ones on her, as electricity crackled up and down the shaft now.

With that, he shouted down, "Take Mitchell. He's probably got a gun, though, so be careful. I can get the spiders more easily than you can in one shot, if you know what I mean." And finally scrambling his way onto the roof, he spun around and stabbed one in the eye, where is dissipated into a cloud of black smoke. So it was an apparition. Thank god there was no gore, at least.

>>"Take Mitchell. He's probably got a gun, though, so be careful. I can get the spiders more easily than you can in one shot, if you know what I mean."

"Oh joy." Maya muttered, reaching for the quiver a second or two after Danny nabbed one of her arrows. She was not entireyl sure what he intended to do with an arrow and now bow, but she really had no time to argue. Pulling out another arrow she nocked it and turned to face the other enemy.

"Wait, did you say g..."

BAM.

Maya ducked, and the bullet ricocheted off the wall. Dropping to one knee she shot the arrow at the mysterious enemy, and it barely missed, hissing over his shoulder as he ducked with considerable speed. Maya reached for another arrow and took cover behind the dumpster.

"DANNY! WHAT THE HELL IS HE?!"

Zzzt. Electricity crackled as Danny speared yet another spider in the eye, shuddering as the mandibles clicked inches away from his arm. He whipped his knife out as he spun around, slicing another across its ugly face. Below him, he could hear Maya muttering something, but he paid no attention. That is, until he heard a gunshot go off. In a brief lull during his fight with the spiders, he glanced over the edge of the roof, just to see Mitchell... dodge an arrow?

"DANNY! WHAT THE HELL IS HE?!"

She was now hiding behind a dumpster, which was probably a good idea considering that gun was from the Revolutionary War. No wonder he missed.

"For starters, he's dead!" Danny shouted back. "I made sure of that! But I've got no clue what this is, though. I'm assuming nightmare monsters, considering these ugly as sh*t spiders up here!" He punctuated that last sentence with a vicious stab into another spider's abdomen as it made a flying leap towards him. Dodging it, it fell over the edge and towards Maya, dissipating right before it hit her. "Oops," he muttered. More loudly, he shouted, "He couldn't dodge an arrow last I checked, though! Not sure what's up with that."

>>"For starters, he's dead! I made sure of that! But I've got no clue what this is, though. I'm assuming nightmare monsters, considering these ugly as sh*t spiders up here!"

Maya shot another arrow at the guy, but the return fire made her duck back behind the dumpster. At least the guy was not advancing.

Nightmare monsters?... It would not have been the first time creepy stuff like that came to life. And Maya did have spiders, a lot. But really?

Talking about spiders: One of them fell and dissipated mid-air. Nightmare it is, then. Kill shots were back on the table. Good.

>>"He couldn't dodge an arrow last I checked, though! Not sure what's up with that."

"Me neither!" Maya yelled, missing another shot and reaching for a new arrow as a bullet pinged off the brick wall "Can I get some broken glass down there?"

Seriously, this was a lot of spiders. Like, a lot. He stabbed yet another, just for more to scramble up and take its place. This was getting ridiculous.

"Me neither!" came from below. "Can I get some broken glass down there?"

Broken glass.

Spider wipeout.

Looked like it was time to pull out the big guns.

"Sure!" he shouted back. "Heads up!"

Slashing at one spider with the arrow, wincing as it exploded into smoke, Danny rolled under another to get into the general center of the pack. With perfect aim, he launched the arrow, and it lodged itself into the eye of another eight-legged nightmare.

Okay, maybe he'd been aiming somewhere else, but that worked too.

Crouching down into a ball, Danny activated his gauntlet.

The resulting explosion wiped out most of the spiders, thank god, with only a few stragglers left staggering around in the aftermath of the blinding light. A few windows below had been blown out from the sudden influx of heat, the glass shattering and clattering to the ground in Mirror's general location. That would probably be enough to keep most of the spiders disoriented enough until Danny came to again.

>>"Sure! Heads up!"

The guy was nothing if not helpful. Maya covered her head with both arms as broken glass, following a large explosion, showered down around her, some pieces bigger than others. By the time it was done there were several scratches on her back and arms, but she would worry about those later on.

"Thanks, that'll do." she muttered, picking up her bow and touching the nearest shard big enough for mirrorwalking. The next moment she re-emerged from an unbroken window behind the shadowy man's back, and shot two arrows at his knees. The figure buckled and twisted around to shoot, at which point Maya shot a last arrow that took him straight in the eye.

There were a few seconds of painful silence, before the man went up in smoke.

Thank God.

"You okay up there?" she called, still holding the bow ready to fight "Your pal's gone, you can come down now."

[OOC: Well, um, Danny is dead for the duration of Mirror's moment of badassery, so this actually would've happened maybe five minutes later.]

Ow. Had he gotten drunk lately? Because if so, he needed to never touch whatever he'd been drinking again. This headache was almost like one he'd get right after going through a rebirth - oh.

Dammit. He had just gone through a rebirth.

He hefted himself up with a groan, wincing as he tried to remember what had happened. There was...Mitchell. And Mirror. And spiders. And - oh, sh*t. The spiders. He hadn't killed them all with the explosion.

Suddenly, there were mandibles and eight freaking eyes in his face, and Danny let out a very manly yell, instinctively driving his knife up into the abdomen of the spider. It hissed before exploding into black smoke, and Danny coughed instinctively, rolling over.

"Mirror!" he shouted, kind of at the floor. He really hated post-rebirth disorientation, mostly because it usually made him seem like a drunk idiot.

"... Danny?... Oh shit."

Maya's brain finally caught up to the event of the past few minutes, and realized that the explosion that broke most of the windows must have originated from Danny himself. Which meant her friend was currently... well, dead.

The X-man flung the bow over her shoulder and started climbing the fire escape, keeping an eye out for spiders and murderous ghosts. She got to the roof just in time to see Danny take out another spider and roll over.

>>"Mirror!"

"Stay down." Maya drew the bow and shot another spider before she walked over to Danny to help him up.

"It would be too much to hope that that was all of them, right?" she frowned "So, what the ever loving hell is going on around here?..."

Danny gratefully took the hand that Maya offered him and hoisted himself up, stumbling a bit as the world spun in front of his eyes. Oh, the struggles of being immortal.

"It would be too much to hope that that was all of them, right? So, what the ever loving hell is going on around here?..."

"I think that was most of the spiders," he replied, glancing around to confirm it. Actually, he couldn't currently see any, but there might still be some lurking around, hiding. "Remember what I said about nightmare monsters? I think I actually could have been onto something. It's Halloween, maybe some mutant is staging a massive prank?" Oh, wait. Those monsters had attacked them and tried to kill them, and Mitchell, at the very least, was Danny's worst fear. He didn't know about the spiders and Maya, though. "Okay, maybe less of a harmless prank and more of either a full-fledged attack or some prankster's out to terrify the city."

>>"I think that was most of the spiders... Remember what I said about nightmare monsters? I think I actually could have been onto something. It's Halloween, maybe some mutant is staging a massive prank?... Okay, maybe less of a harmless prank and more of either a full-fledged attack or some prankster's out to terrify the city."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Maya frowned, collecting her arrows "There is something every year. Every. Freaking. Year. I mean, we have had zombies, and turkey, and Christmas trees, and more zombies, and... stuff." she sighed "Are you suggesting that someone is actually generating things we are afraid of?..."

Maya paused for a moment of déja vu. She remembered that haunted house, years ago, that just played with everyone's deepest fears. Twyla was there. Someone almost broke a mirror on her.

"Gah" the mirrorwalker shook her head "Whatever it is, we gotta find it and shut it down. And just because you suggested that it is personalized... are there any undead time traveling gunslingers in your past that I need to be aware of?..."

"Wouldn't be the first time. There is something every year. Every. Freaking. Year. I mean, we have had zombies, and turkey, and Christmas trees, and more zombies, and... stuff." Oh, well that's lovely. For his first Christmas in NYC after getting involved with the more militarized mutants there, it sure was exciting. Good to know the X-Men, at the very least, had experience handling strange situations. "Are you suggesting that someone is actually generating things we are afraid of?..." That was very plausible, and pretty much what Danny had been implying. Mutations varied greatly, and so it wouldn't be ridiculous to see somebody who could do that.

"Gah. Whatever it is, we gotta find it and shut it down. And just because you suggested that it is personalized... are there any undead time traveling gunslingers in your past that I need to be aware of?..."

Oh. Awkward situation, much? "Er, not really," Danny replied a little too rapidly. He quickly caught himself, though, and realizing that he probably would have to explain to her the various things he feared if it was going to endanger them, sighed and started to speak. "My mutation was weird - didn't randomly manifest in my teenage years like most, but manifested only when I'd died for the first time. That was the guy who killed me." No need for more elaboration on that specific event, though. "Also, in terms of possible enemies we might face in terms of my fears, a nuke, a guillotine, and the entirety of the British army back from the Revolutionary War are somewhere in there." Was there anything else? "And Nazis. Probably Nazis." WWII had not been a nice period in time.

>>"Er, not really... My mutation was weird - didn't randomly manifest in my teenage years like most, but manifested only when I'd died for the first time. That was the guy who killed me... Also, in terms of possible enemies we might face in terms of my fears, a nuke, a guillotine, and the entirety of the British army back from the Revolutionary War are somewhere in there... And Nazis. Probably Nazis."

Maya gaped. She was aware that she gaped, and she wasn't even ashamed of it.

"Dude."

Nazis? Really?

"Duuuude." she shook her head "A nuke? Really?..."

Because that was pretty much that had not hit New York City yet. Knock on wood.

"That's... probably the most lucrative B movie plot I have heard in a long time" she shook her head in disbelief "Well, on the plus side, old guns are not all that accurate, right? And guillotines are not exactly combat weapons..."

Best worst history class ever.

"... wait, were you... you know... were you ever really..." she asked, drawing a finger across her neck to signal what she was trying to ask.