<div class="floatleft">(https://images.askmen.com/recess/interviews/crush-of-the-week-laura-prestin-10-151821044160.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Courtney Whitmore<br/><br/><strong>Codename:</strong>Stargirl<br/><br/><strong>Age:</strong>19<br/><br/><strong>Species:</strong>Human<br/><br/><strong>Sex:</strong>Female<br/><br/><strong>Gender:</strong>Female<br/><br/><strong>Sexual Orientation:</strong>Lesbian<br/><br/><strong>Faceclaim:</strong>Laura Prestin<br/><br/><strong>History:</strong>Born to Sam Kurtis and Barbara Whitmore, Courtney grew up in good old sunny California… until her parents decided to break up.  Her mother ended up remarrying to Pat Dugan and the whole family moved to Nebraska.  You can imagine that she wasn’t very… enthusiastic about either the move or her new stepdad.  Rebellious teens are gonna rebel, and she made life quite difficult for both him and her mother from then on.<br/><br/>Life continued as it does, and Courtney, while still resentful, eventually came to not absolutely despise Nebraska.  The people there were friendly enough, and the schools, while having none of the friends she made in California, were decent.  She even made a couple of new friends, which certainly helped.  The same could not be said about her feelings for her stepfather.  To her, Dugan was the man trying to take her actual father’s place, so naturally she simply had to hate him.  This made their household a tense place to be, as one might imagine, especially when her mother, in her eyes, kept taking the side of Dugan against her.<br/><br/>Things eventually changed, however, when not only did Courtney discover that Dugan used to be Stripesy, the only adult sidekick to a teen hero in history, but her plan to take a dig at him backfired when the dance she was attending ended up being attacked by forces sent by the Dragon King.  Her stepfather showed up to help her in a full blown suit of mechanized armor, called S.T.R.I.P.E., and together they sent the criminals packing.  This turned Dugan from the evil stepfather to literally the coolest thing ever.  The heart of a teenager is truly a fickle thing indeed.  This inspired the teen to actually apply herself, for once, and not only graduate from the California Institute of Technology but also kick some serious ass as the newly christened Star-Spangled Kid.<br/><br/>The years came and went, enemies rose and fell, and Courtney eventually became a solo act with her own archnemesis and everything.  By the age of eighteen she was one of the more famous legacy heroes, and came to carry on the Starman legacy when Jack Knight retired.  In the past year alone she’s put down a demon worshiping cult, fought her nemesis, Shiv, on multiple occasions, and now she has an offer to join some new team being formed by the Justice League.  Seeing this as her chance to get into the big leagues, Courtney has decided to attend the meeting and see where it takes her.<br/><br/><strong>Personality:</strong>A little bit cocky, a touch sarcastic, and a heaping helping of being too smart for her own good is pretty much how you can describe Courtney.  You can also use words like smartass and daredevil, but stop, you’ll make her blush with all this praise.  She’s definitely well aware of how powerful she is and likes it, so she can come across as abrasive and arrogant.  She’s not a bad person, just someone with room to grow.  How she’ll change, however, remains to be seen.<br/><br/><strong>Powers:</strong>Trained Gymnast - Courtney initially wanted to be a professional gymnast, before becoming a superhero at least.  She once competed on a state level and may have even made the nationals had her life not gone in the direction it did.<br/><br/>Hand to Hand Combat (Advanced) - Ever since she was old enough to learn, Courtney’s stepfather insisted that she be able to defend herself.  She was allowed to choose the style she would be instructed in, so, after seeing a certain movie starring a certain Belgian actor, she decided on kickboxing.  She has never once slacked in her training, loving the competition of the sport and the visceral impact of the fight itself.  Good thing, too, given where her life ended up going.<br/><br/><strong>Special Qualities:</strong>Trash Talker - Like a certain wall crawler from another universe, Courtney loves to talk smack during a fight.<br/><br/>Whiz-Kid - Courtney, despite her attitude, was always a bright girl.  She’s since learned to apply her natural cleverness and intelligence to both crime fighting and her day to day life, and earned herself a degree in Robotics from the California Institute of Technology.  You can thank her stepdad for inspiring that one.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Special Equipment:</strong>Cosmic Converter Belt - Originally owned by Sylvester Pemberton, the Cosmic Converter Belt, or just Cosmic Belt for short, grants Courtney a slew of abilities whenever she wears it.  These include superhuman levels of strength, agility, speed, durability, and stamina, as well as an additional power called Shooting Stars.  The cosmic energy converted by the belt can be channeled into star-bursts that can disrupt electronics and the nervous systems of organics.  Kind of like a super powered taser.  The belt is also attuned specifically to Courtney, meaning it’s useless to anyone else that isn’t willing to invest the time to attune themselves to it instead.<br/><br/>Cosmic Staff - A potent weapon by any standards, the Cosmic Staff is what the Cosmic belt was based off of.  It converts cosmic energy at an astounding rate and can channel it into various forms.  The first is a form of gravity manipulation, allowing the user, along with several others of their choosing, to fly at ludicrous speeds.  It can also attract/repel targets to/form itself, deflect energy attacks, form defensive barriers, fire blasts of either yellow or red stellar energy (the latter quite useful against Kryptonians), absorb other types of energy, create energy constructs, and emit enough heat to melt steel.  It, like the belt, is also specifically attuned to Courtney.<br/><br/><strong>Limitations/Weaknesses:</strong>Only Human - Without her gear Courtney is just as vulnerable as any other civilian on the street.  So if she were caught without her belt, she could very easily be taken out by anything that would kill your average joe.<br/><br/>Impatient - Courtney has the patience of your typical teenager, meaning it doesn’t exist.  This has gotten her into trouble in the past, both from her stepdad and when waiting would have served her better than acting recklessly.<br/><br/><strong>Ons/Offs:</strong>On's/Off's (https://elliquiy.com/forums/onsoffs.php?u=63766)<br/><br/><strong>Character Theme:</strong>I Burn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9mQTmXxU8E)<br/><br/><strong>Plot Seeds:</strong>Shiv, her archnemesis, has sworn revenge for the death of her father, the Dragon King, at Courtney’s hands.  Sam Kurtis, Courtney’s biological father, becomes a member of the Royal Flush Gang, so that’s another potential thread to follow.  She’s likely made other enemies during her career, as well.<br/>