Abigail Montgomery

"*My dark art is not just a way to cope through my pain... it's my life. I embraced the darkness as who I am*".- Abigail Montgomery

**Abigail Montgomery** is a shadowy young girl with a traumatic past and a link to darkness. She is one of the main protagonists of The Hawk and The Crow, alongside Mary Jane Fitzgerald, where she first appeared in Tome I: A Legacy Beyond Comprehension.

Smart, disciplined and shady by nature, Abigail is an struggling artist who copes with her pain through her art due to the losses she suffered in her past life. Despite her efforts to isolate herself from society, a spiritual manifestation begins to convince Abigail in facing her past and reunite with an important person to ensure their survival in a cruel world.

## Background

Abigail Montgomery was born and raised by Lucius Montgomery and his wife Melina in Niagara Falls, New York on April 5th, 1984. Three years later, her parents were assaulted by a trio of mercenaries who worked for a shady organization, who broke into their village home in Niagara Falls. Lucius sacrificed himself by fighting the mercenaries until he was killed, allowing Melina to swiftly escape with the infant Abigail. However, one of the mercenaries followed the footprints and chased Melina until she killed her. While the man attempted to attack Abigail, he was killed by Preston Daniels, an elderly farmer from the village, who willingly took care of Abigail in his secluded village home. Over the years that she grew up, Abigail developed her passion for art and she sketched the landscapes of the Niagara Falls while feeding the American Crows that lived in the tree next to her home, and even rescuing a particular specimen from a barbed wire fence.

A few days later, thanks to the spirit of Anastasia Wynter sensing the powerful source of Abigail's heart, Abigail and Mary Jane met for the first time ever. Daniels wanted her to permanently live with the Fitzgerald Family, knowing the history that they have and that Mary Jane will be a great partner for Abigail in life. On October 30th, 1995, Abigail was once again victim of a painful loss, when Randy Cavanaugh broke into the home of the Fitzgeralds, murdered Alan and Janet and scarred both cousins, before setting the house on fire. During the fire, Abigail escaped through the attic's window and ran away out of fear, leaving Mary Jane behind with the bodies of Alan and Janet and causing a lot of dullness and guilt in Abigail's heart.

After the incident, Abigail thrived through harsh times during her pilgrimage back to her former home in Niagara Falls, having to take food out of markets to survive and hiding in buses and trucks so she can travel back home. Arriving in the desolate village, Abigail only found the dead body of her former father figure, leaving her devastated. While attempting to jump off the falls, a flock of crows suddenly appeared and began to encircle Abigail. Then, after sighting the crow she saved in the past, Abigail felt that the crows cared about her well-being. Giving life another chance, Abigail was inspired by her ordeals and moved on for a new life.

## Appearance

Abigail Montgomery is a tall and skinny woman with pale white skin, long wavy black hair and bright blue eyes, with black liquid streams coming from the eye zones. She is well-known for wearing a custom red dress with decorative black leather pieces resembling feathers, and golden rune-like designs, and combines it with black leggings with designs that depict The Furies and black ballerina shoes. She also uses black evening gloves with decorative black feathers, these gloves cover her nails turned into razor-sharp claws able to rend skin tissue and some structures.

### Roar

As a Parahuman, Abigail Montgomery produces clicking vocalizations, alongside sounds of Crows. When she is provoked, Abigail makes terrifying roars that are quite similar to the Yautjas, also known as Predators from their titular series, and the Therizinosaurus from Jurassic World: Dominion (2022).

## Personality

Abigail Montgomery is a shadowy and witty woman with an incredibly strong intellect and self-sufficience. She also shares great knowledge about mythology and other supernatural stories. Abigail's quest is to reflect the way she sees the world, but she tends to be very honest, negative and blunt, especially when talking about the flaws of society, and holds deep grudges with people that seek power and money.

When she started to embrace her powers, Abigail became an aggressive and feral creature who started a swath of justice over those who made her life a living hell. However, Abigail's actions are not with entirely malicious intent, but as a way to show her enemies that harmful actions have dreadful consequences. As opposed to any sort of morality, Abigail considers humans to be insignificant and does not care about their general well-being, but at the same time does not consider them worth destroying.

## Powers and Abilities

Although she is human like everyone around her, Abigail Montgomery was revealed to be a Parahuman born with supernatural powers that allow her to manipulate her environment and coexist with humans and supernatural beings. These abilities were granted by her ties to The Otherworld.

* Avian Empathy - Over the years, Abigail has developed a keen affinity for crows and the ability to understand their emotions.
	+ Alpha Call - As the Paramount of Crows, Abigail can let out an extremely loud and powerful call. Upon hearing the said call, the crows in the area would immediately come to her aid.
* Psychography - The ability to produce written words without consciously writing. The words arise from a subconscious, spiritual or supernatural source.
* Umbrakinesis - The ability to create and manipulate darkness and shadows at will. Abigail is shown to create crow-like constructs that can deliver damage to her victims.
* Regeneration - The ability to heal wounds and injuries beyond that of a normal person. This ability does not however make its holder immortal or invulnerable, just more difficult to kill than normal beings. It is also called Healing Factor.
* Clairsentience - The ability to display the uncanny knowledge of her surroundings, such as supernatural energies or sometimes as seeing the history of an object. Abigail used this power many times to recover her past and the stories of her family.
* Echolocation - As a Parahuman, Abigail can determine the location of objects or people in the environment by use of reflected sound waves.
* Supernatural Insanity Immunity - Due to her connection with The Otherworld, Abigail has become immune to losing her sanity upon interacting with Ghosts and other supernatural manifestations, which is a normal vulnerability for humans.

## Weaknesses

Despite the fact that she has very impressive powers and abilities, Abigail does have limitations.

* Mortality - Despite her Parahuman status, Abigail is still attached to mortality and her healing factor can be weakened.
* Emotions - Sometimes, Abigail's emotions can play odds against her, rendering her unable to take decisions and even make go berserk.
* Loud Noises - It seems like loud noises can obstruct Abigail's senses, and cause her to panic or go unhinged.

## Quotes

* **To Mary Jane Fitzgerald, regarding the Crows**: "Perhaps, covered in darkness as I was, they saw me as one of their own".
* **To Cain Dvarka**: "The demoralization of society and the darker side of human existence is upon us, and we just don't want to admit it. This filthy group of people that call themselves civilized has lost all moral believes and has corroded into hatred, segregation, and death".
* **To Franklin Haines**: "You cannot tame a beast that does not fear".
* **To Benedict Taven**: "These assholes think they can take everything from me and laugh in my face, but they don't realize I'm a woman with nothing left to lose".

## Trivia

* Abigail Montgomery is based on "The Artist" Carmina Mora from Dead by Daylight: Portrait of a Murder (2021) and Bruce Wayne from The Batman comic series in terms of background and personality.
* Her favorite song is "*South of Heaven*" by Slayer.
* According to Brooke Redwood:
	+ Abigail is the incarnation of retributive justice against the people that harm the innocent.
	+ The animal-based combat style of Abigail in her Parahuman form is based on the Therizinosaurus, Grizzly Bears and Cassowaries.
* She has a mascot named Coco, a particular American Crow (*Corvus brachyrhynchos*) with grey flower-like patterns on its wings and small fangs in its beak.
* Abigail's black leggings have designs that resemble The Furies, female chthonic deities of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. This can be an allusion to her duty as "the face of retribution".
* Regarding her view of society, Abigail cited the Latin proverb "*Homo homini lupus est*", which means "*a man is a wolf to another man*", which further explains why she doesn't trust humans.
* Her favorite sandwich is called "Purple Fire", and is made with Ciabatta bread, purple onion, salted mushrooms, pieces of salted bacon and garlic.