Limelight (Rachel "Rapunzel" Punzel)

**Rachel Punzel** (known to the public as **Limelight**, close friends as **Rapunzel**) is a superhero of Corona City, a founding member of the Big Four superhero team, and a career supermodel.

## Background

Rapunzel was born without superpowers to a normal family. As an infant, she was kidnapped by the centuries-old witch Gothel, who planned to use her as a test subject for an elixir brewed from a magical glower, said to contain the essence of the sun. Gothel planned to use the elixir to keep herself young forever, but used the infant Rapunzel in case there were side effects.

Gothel fed a few drops of the elixir to Rapunzel, which showed no visible effects. Disappointed and distracted by research, she didn't notice the thirsty infant drink the rest of the elixir. The potion infused Rapunzel with the sun's essence and turned her hair from its natural brown to golden-blonde. While initially angered, Gothel discovered that Rapunzel could now metabolize sunlight, which the witch could cultivate to keep herself young. Gothel kept the child and confined her to an abandoned building, filling her head with wild tales of the dangerous outside world.

This arrangement lasted for years until a young rouge names Eugene Fitzherbert broke into the prison to escape police. he found Rapunzel and they struck up a friendship. Eugene would continue to visit and learned about her life, eventually deciding to break her out. Rapunzel, believing Gothel to be her mother and her stories about the outside, refused.

This changed when Eugene discovered a missing child flier of Rapunzel, confirming her kidnapping and pushing Rapunzel to agree to the breakout. Gothel discovered their plan and attempted to stop them. Thinking quickly, Eugene cut Rapunzel's hair, reverting it to its natural brown color. Her "flower" gone, Gothel lost interest and fled. Eugene took Rapunzel to the police, who reunited her with her parents.

Some months after reuniting with her parents, Rapunzel tried to access her powers and found that ,not only could she, but her powers were far greater than she realized. After some time of discovering what she could do and defining her limits, she decided to become a superhero, adopting the alias "Limelight". Some time after he debut, Gothel realized who Limelight was and tried to take Rapunzel back, but Rapunzel refused and fought the witch off. this event marked the beginning of a bitter rivalry.

During a clash with Gothel, Rapunzel was aided by the new superhero Archer. Naturally friendly and impressed by the non-powered heroine, Limelight proposed a partnership, which Archer refused. However, after teaming up to take down a dangerous gang situation, both heroines decided to join forces. The two became close friends and eventually revealed their secret identities to each other.

## Personality

Rapunzel is an energetic and cheerful young woman, analogous with the sun that grants her powers. She is strong-willed yet sensitive, and passionate about life and helping others. Rapunzel holds her friendships quite dearly and is fiercely protective of the innocent.

Rapunzel possesses a natural maternal instinct that urges her to protect those who cannot help themselves, seen most prominently in her first interactions with Riley Andersen. In her mentorship to Riley, Rapunzel has been shown to be a firm, but fair teacher.

## Appearance

Rapunzel is a lovely young woman with a heart-shaped face with full lips, large green eyes, brown hair cut above her shoulders, and tanned skin. She stands at 5' 8" and has a delicate build.

When using her powers, Rapunzel's hair turns golden-blonde and grows to about knee-length.

Rapunzel's supersuit consists of a skin-tight purple unitard with gold highlights and gold starbursts on the chest, elbows, and knees. She wears silver knee-high high-heeled boots, purple fingerless gloves that stretch to her elbows and attach to her top, and a purple domino mask.

## Powers & Abilities

The elixir Rapunzel was fed as an infant imbued her with a magical fragment of the sun, granting her the power to absorb sunlight and utilize it in a variety of superpowers. Her limits are only restrained by her solar reserves and willpower, as shown when she could lift over two hundred tons when believing it was merely one hundred. Rapunzel's powers make her one of the most powerful heroes alive, capable of fighting gods on equal footing.

The magical essense of the sun infused within Rapunzel grants her a variety of superhuman abilties, including:

* **Sunlight Absorbtion:** As a part of her powers, Rapunzel constantly and passively abosrbs ambient suolar energy, which her body stores like a living solar battery. Rapunzel is capable of tapping into these reserves to use her various other powers. However, if these reserves are exhuasted, she will be unable to access her powers until they are at least partially replinished. Until recently, Rapunzel believed her potential reserves to be finite, but recent events have proven otherwise. When super-saturated with solar energy, her powers are magnified far beyond their already impressive levels and she becomes, jittery, hyper, and unable to sit still. This effect has relegated this artifical saturation to emerencies only.
* **Flight:** Using her powers, Rapunzel is capable independent flight, able to defy gravity and propel herself through the air at high speeds. She is capable of moving extremely fast in the air, her tell-tale crash a result of her breaking the sound barrier. Comments in "Superhero Drabbles" imply she is at least capable of flying at Mach 3.
* **Superhuman Strength:** Fueled by her solar energy, Rapunzel possesses vast superhuman strength, capable of lifting and carrying in excess of two hundred tons without great effort. With her strength, Limelight is capable of ovrpowering most threats with sheer brute force. It has been confirmed that limelight is among the top five strongest heroes in the Big Four Universe.
* **Superhuman Speed:** In addition to amplifying her strength, Rapunzel's powers also greatly enhance her speed, allowing her to dodge bullets or the attacks of similarly superhuman foes.
* **Superhuman Senses:** Rapunzel's powers enhance her senses, allowing her to, for instance, pick out a single voice in a screaming crowd. She has mentioned that she rarely uses this power.
* **Invulnerability**: Rapunzel has displayed incredibly high levels of physical durability, such as enduring the rigors of supersonic flight, hails of bullets, attacks from superhuman foes, a building falling on her, and incredible blunt force trauma, among others, with little to no injury. However, her durability does have limits, as Entropy was able to injure her.
* **Energy Projection:** In addition to amplifying her physical abilities, Limelight is able to channel her stored solar energy and fire it as destructive beams, referred to as "sun blasts". She is able to alter the power of these blasts from able to knock out an average person to stagger full-fledged gods.
* **Healing:** In addition to offensive use, Rapunzel is able to channel her solar power defensively through her hair, allowing her to heal the injuries and ailments of others. She can use this power to heal any manner of physical injuries, from bruising and minor cuts to broken bones. She can even restore youth stolen by magic.
* **Prehensile Hair:** Rapunzel is capable of animating and controlling her hair like a fifth limb, able to use it offensively like a whip or to bind or grab opponents.
* **Magical Sensitivity:** A smaller effect of her powers, possibly even a side effect, allows Rapunzel to sense the presence of magical energy, particularly dark magic.

## Trivia

* Limelights abilities are most often compared to that of the DC superhero Superman, as they both possess unparalleled strength, speed, durability, flight and gain strength from the sun.