David learned of his abilities, but kept them secret from his family. Frustrated at forgetting the skills he had picked up, he studied hard to try to learn all he could about them. He came into contact with Xi'an Coy Mahn at the library of the college she attended, so when Danielle Moonstar came looking for a mutant, she knew it was him. She tried to keep Danielle away from him until a local anti-mutant group called Purity targeted him, revealing to his parents that he was a mutant. After a failed attack on him by Purity, David agreed to go to Charles Xavier's school, where he became fast friends with Kevin Ford, Sofia Mantega and Laurie Collins.
After a fight with the Reavers, he was roomed with Josh Foley, whom he immediately disliked because Foley was a former Reaver himself. David began to warm up to Josh, and even accompanied him and Wolfsbane on a mission to find a mutant in Salem Center. They returned with the girl, Noriko Ashida, who disliked David due to his seemingly close-minded attitude towards Josh. Eventually, David realized that he regarded Josh as a little brother, and wanted to keep him from hurting himself. As a member of the New Mutants squad, David's keen intellect allowed him to strategize and direct his teammates most effectively. Due to this, and Sofia's self-doubt about her leadership, Prodigy agreed to join her as a co-squad leader.
After enduring repeated taunts by Hellion regarding his usefulness in battle, David asked Danielle and Emma to find out if he had a mental block preventing him from retaining his absorbed knowledge. They found the block, and telepathically put David through a mental scenario (though he didn't know it at the time) that showed what he would do without it, as the world's smartest man.
In the scenario, David quickly outgrew the Xavier Institute and within three months cured AIDS and cancer, though it cost Elixir his life. Eighteen years later, David was married to Noriko and President of the United States. All countries except China had joined the U.S., and David was planning to drop nuclear bombs across all of China. When Danielle confronted him, he killed her, and blew up the X-Men on a satellite. The surviving New Mutants joined the terrorist Hellions and attacked the White House, but Prodigy, Sage and the X.S.E. killed them all except Surge, who overloaded her gauntlets and blew herself and David to bits.
After seeing the potential damage his full power could do, David decided not to remove his mental block. Since then he felt very awkward around Surge, and tried to avoid her. After the semester he contemplated leaving the Institute altogether. However, Sofia managed to get the team to talk about their interpersonal problems and he stayed. During this time David created a "Danger Cave" with skills gleaned from Beast and others. The room, situated in the old Morlock tunnels, was equipped with holographic projectors linked to a database of the X-Men's greatest missions. His teammates could be "clothed" to match the X-Men members and other people from those missions. Following House of M|M-Day, David was de-powered and was going to go home, but before doing so, he showed his friends the Danger Cave. Fortunately he was not on the bus that was blown up by Stryker. However, his parents didn't really want him to come home, so he ended up with nowhere to go and stayed in the Institute.
David and several students listened to a story told by Blindfold, about [[Magik (Illyana Rasputin)|Magik, a deceased member of the original New Mutants. The group is suddenly taken to another dimesion called limbo by the demon who trained Magik, Belasco. David is questioned by Belasco about Magik When told she is dead, Belasco kills David by ripping out his heart but Josh was able to restore him due to the information he had obtained from Beast's brain. David notices that Belasco had put helmets on Stepford Cuckoos and Martha that blocked their telepathic powers. As Mercury and Dust continue to battle Belasco, he has Josh boost a heavily injured X-23's healing factor. X-23 uses her claws to release the psychics. The Cuckoos launch a telepathic attack on Belasco and they discover that Belasco had captured and lost two other innocent women before, and that Belasco loved Illyana and wanted her innocent soul not for power or revenge but for love. The Cuckoos are forced out of Belasco's mind but Belasco is defeated by Pixie and the Darkchild (Belasco's soulless recreation of Magik) before he could pull Earth into Limbo. When the students returned to the Mansion with the help of the other X-Men, david is greeted by Surge by seeing her kiss Hellion telling David that she no longer loved him and did not want him to remain at the mansion. When confronted by the Stepford Cuckoos they offer him a chance to regain all of the past abilities he had before M-Day. By removing his mental blocks David once again had acess to all the information he had absorbed before his powers were taken away, at a meeting with the other X-Men David was then named substitute instructor.
When the first Mutant baby scince M-Day was born many enemies of the X-Men went after it, Surge leaded the New X-Men into battle against the purifiers though David declines participating seeing the battle as revenge and not beneficial, when the New X-men returned to the Mansion with a mortally wounded Hellion and the mansion under attack by Sentinel Squad O*N*E David assisted Beast in stabilizing all of the injured students and faculty.
