Lightmare

Artist's rendition

Lightmare is a superhero created by Media Baron

## History

### Origins

Born in Great Britain to private psychiatrist Quinton Quartermain and lawyer Charlotte Steele, Abigail Quartermain had always wanted to help and protect others from a earlier age, taught by her father that helping someone in turn helps everyone. This motivated her to take up martial arts in her teens, much to her mother's dismay.

When Charlotte received a job offer from Leighton and Law over in London, the whole family moved, forcing Abigail to finish the rest of her final term in a different college. Adding to her frustrations, she later discovered her mother had put her on the acrobatics program in an attempt to pull her away from what she saw as "violent" activities. However, it was at this new college where she met one Tracey Brightmore, what would prove to be one of the most important meetings of her life. The two quickly became best friends, bonding over a shared love of anime and other geeky media, and hung out together constantly, Abigail even sometimes helping out with the heavy lifting at Tracey's job as a theatre lighting engineer.

Abigail's home life however was becoming strained with her mother's constant interfering with her school life and her father being too busy at work to spend time with her. Even missing her big acrobatics performance. Whilst moping about that, Abigail received a distressed call from Tracey. Running to one of the college's audio recording rooms, she found Tracey's soon to be ex-boyfriend Simon attempting to force himself upon her, luckily getting there in time before anything happened, and managed to punch him out. Though Tracey was beyond grateful, Charlotte was furious, demanding Abigail cut off ties with her so as to avoid any potential legal or social repercussions. At her wits end, Abigail went to her father Quinton, confiding her frustrations in him. Recognising he needed to show his daughter the proper support, Quinton cancelled one of his sessions in order to attend her next performance.

After quite some time, Abigail finally got back in contact with Tracey, the pair agreeing to meet up at the theatre. While there, the two bared witness to the arrival of Phillip Dewitt, the client whose appointment Quinton cancelled, who held the entire audience hostage with a makeshift bomb. Thinking quickly, the two friends put together a plan to stop him. Wearing one of Tracey's inventions: a cloak made of a special luminescent cloth, and disguised within a outfit made from old costume parts, Abigail managed to defeat Dewitt by temporarily blinding him with a flash of light before cutting the wire to his bomb vest and knocking him out with a roundhouse kick. And thus, Lightmare was born!

When word got about Quinton being Dewitt's psychiatrist, it was naturally also discovered that he had been secretly selling private information on clients, and he was promptly charged and arrested. Charlotte, who had helped run the scandal through her equally corrupt ties at Leighton and Law, made plans to flee the country, wanting to take Abigail with her. She refused only for her mother to strike her across the face before breaking out into a rant about how she'd pretty much used Quinton as a means to an end. Seeing the darkness that laid within Charlotte, Abigail pretty much disowned her mother right there and then, leaving her to run off on her own.

Not long afterward, Abigail and Tracey, both in need of some time away, made the decision to leave Britain and see the world together.

*{Section to be filled in later}*

### Battle against Amber

When Amber and Jack attacked Leroy Fitzroy, Lightmare rushed to the battle. She arrived just in time to save Fitzroy, who was having his legs decimated by Amber on the rooftop of a New York building. Lightmare knocked both him and Jack out before she battled with Amber. In this battle, she displayed multiple uses of her powers, such as her lasers and her holograms. After she got the upper hand, Amber proceeded to use her strength to destroy the building's roof. Lightmare had been trapped under rubble and was nearly decimated by Amber, but she then created an illusion of Amber's adoptive brother, Chris. Witnessing this, Amber ceased fighting and turned herself in. Lightmare escaped and disappeared.

### War against the New Egyptians

It is presumed that Lightmare was the one to take down Cleopatra's army, enabling the authorities to take them into custody.

### Reaction to the Silent's message

Following the Silent's message, Lightmare proceeded to send a message to Dr. Quartermain, warning him that she knows of the Silent's operations and plans to stop them. She also mentioned that it was dangerous to trust Barry, stating that he actually pretended to be dumber than he really was. This private message was somehow discovered by a member of the silent named Whisper, who reported the information to Uproar.

### Battle against the Escapees

Not too long after the escape of Jim, Ace and Dorothy. Lightmare came into conflict with them outside a clothing store. She was able to throw Jim through the window and destroy Dorothy's illusions, but trouble came when Ace started using his pyrokinesis. The store caught on fire and the escapees ran off. Lightmare stayed behind to save a worker from the burning building and escaped.

### Saving Pepper

When Dr. Pistol's daughter, Pepper, uploaded the video showing where she was being held captive, Lightmare immediately rushed to the scene in hopes of rescuing her. But by the time she got there, the whole building was evacuated. While searching for a clue, she uncovered a mocking recording left by Slycer before discovering that the whole place was set to blow. Escaping just in time, Lightmare then found herself face to face with Slycer's main muscle: Quiver, along with his henchmen. Despite being outnumbered, Lightmare held her own, managing to fight her way through most of them, prompting Quiver to threaten to kill Pepper should she come any closer. However, during the fight, Lightmare had secretly swapped places with one of her holograms, sneaking behind Quiver so she could punch him out. Leaving the unconscious Quiver and his men to be picked up by the police, Lightmare reunited Pepper with her father, before disappearing once more.

Sadly, despite her best efforts, Lightmare was later unable to protect Pepper when she was attacked and seemingly killed by Slycer. She and Agent Pistol would later try and track him down, only to be met with Quiver again, whom they defeated and carted off to the police again.

### Lyre Lyre

Discovering her father had been kidnapped by Lyrebird and held prisoner at the asylum, Lightmare rushed in to rescue him. She and Lyrebird did battle, leaving Quinton to deactivate his incendiary bomb with remote assistance from Trace. The psychopath proved a capable foe, being able to match Lightmare in combat ability blow for blow. When Lyrebird shot Quinton, she began attacking him in an utter frenzy, using up much of her suit's power supply. When Lyrebird had her pinned to the ground and a gun to her head however, she managed to produce a tiny, harmless laser beam of light and aim it at his head, giving direction to Quinton's cat Waffles, who attacked Lyrebird, distracting him long enough for Lightmare to beat him to a pulp before throwing him into an empty cell. After just barely getting rid of the bomb in time, she helped get Quinton to Lieber Memorial Hospital for treatment. While there, Abigail came clean and revealed her identity to him, allowing father and daughter to reunite after five years apart.

### Something to Die For

When Governor Fitzroy announced the creation of a new metahuman task force, Lightmare and Trace naturally had to investigate. After sneaking into the party, Lightmare soon had to face off not just with Fitzroy's new goon: Quickdraw, but also Siren and Living Battery of The Silent as well as Dr. ?, turning what was supposed to be an investigation into a free-for-all battle royale. During the confrontation, Dr. ? managed to inject Lightmare with some of The Madman's serum, sending her into a nightmarish hallucination where she was haunted by those she failed to save.

Restrained and forced to watch as The Silent cornered Fitzroy, she along with everyone else was surprised when what appeared to be Whisper entered the room to claim the kill for himself. But it turned out to be a holodrone controlled by Trace, who after disabled Siren's sonic scream, freed Lightmare who tricked Living Battery into using his power draining abilities on her. Since she has no powers, he ended up draining the effects of the serum into himself, curing her and causing him to fall under the serum's effects instead. Finally, Lightmare dealt with Dr. ? by applying a bit of psychology herself, convincing him that killing Fitzroy would actually make things worse for Hillbrook and that allowing her to take him down her way would work out better for everyone.

### The Trial of Dr. Pistol

When Pistol was framed for a crime he didn't commit, Abigail was among those called to the stand. When The Graphite Silent dropped the facade and attacked, she went to change into her alter ego, Trace using a holodrone to briefly cover for her and make it appear that Abigail and Lightmare were in the same place at the same time. The attacker turned out to be a shadowy doppelganger calling herself Darklight. As the two fought, Lightmare became suspicious of her opponent as she began making references to her and Pistol, as if she knew them both. Soon Darklight revealed the truth. That she was in fact Pepper Salazar. She hadn't been killed by Slycer. Instead, he drugged and kidnapped her before putting her through several months of brainwashing. Training her in combat and somehow artificially ageing her up into a young adult. Now believing Pistol and Lightmare were her enemies, the two were forced to fight her until they could restrain her. Wanting to handle this matter himself, Pistol asked Lightmare to leave the two be, which she did.

## Personality

Outgoing and upbeat, Abigail is a ray of sunshine that's always out to brighten up another's day. She's motivated by a great longing to help and protect those in need, looking to do good wherever she can. This goes double for friends and family. While like her father, she can become easily frustrated, she's far more self motivated and eager to solve the problem than he is. Never allowing herself to wallow in doubt or despair, preferring to raise others out of it, typically through humour. Though sometimes a tad cocky, when push comes to shove, Abigail knows when to be serious.

As Lightmare, she tends to put on a more mysterious, no-nonsense tone, no doubt trying to channel the fictional heroes she took inspiration from. That said, she never takes it too far. Nor does she pretend to hide whenever she's having fun doing what she does.

## Powers and abilities

Martial artist: In and out of costume, Abigail is an expert hand to hand combatant. Having been trained in over thirty different forms of martial arts.

Acrobat: Thanks to her Olympic level athleticism and her experience in both gymnastics and parkour, she's capable of astonishing acrobatic feats.

Great strength and stamina: Thanks to years of fighting and rigorous training, Abigail is in peak physical condition. While not superhuman, her strength and stamina are definitely above average.

Lightmare suit: Abigail's costume outfitted with a luminescent cloak provides her with several additional abilities, including:

* Temporarily blinding flashes of light
* Concussive light beams
* Holographic illusions
* Invisibility
* Protective body armour

## Weaknesses

Her suit has a limited battery life. With the exception of the body armour, using any of the abilities it provides causes her to spend energy. If the suit runs out of energy, she will be unable to use any of them until it is recharged.

## Relationships

### Tracey Brightmore

Abigail's partner, as she once described, "in both work and play", Tracey is the other half of Lightmare in more ways than one, maintaining the suit and gadgetry whilst also handling more of the admin side of being a vigilante. The two lovers are inseparable and complement each other greatly. With Abigail helping to build up the comparatively more reserved Tracey's confidence, and Tracey being one of the only people able to reel in her girlfriend's more wild side.

### Dr. Quartermain

Abigail's father. Their relationship, while positive, has had it's ups and downs over the years, mostly thanks to the scandal with Leighton and Law. Eventually though, the two patched things up and their bond has been stronger ever since. Quinton also acts as Lightmare's secret ally in Hillbrook, keeping her up to date about patients and informing her of potential threats.

### Drake "Pistol" Salazar

"Uncle Drake" as she calls him. While not actually related, the two see each other as family. Having met Abigail when she was still a little girl, Drake would go on to be the one who taught her parkour and may have also influenced her interest in fighting. In adulthood, the two are still close, even occasionally fighting crime together as Lightmare and Agent Pistol.

### Charlotte Steele

Abigail's mother. Charlotte treated Abigail less as a daughter and more like an accessory. Concerning herself with her social standing more than her happiness. The two split long ago and Abigail has no intention of reconnecting any time soon. To her, Charlotte is no mother.