Estrellita 'Lita' Mercado

Melee:        RV 10
Coordination: RV 10
Brawn:        RV 10
Fortitude:    RV 20
Intellect:    RV 10
Awareness:    RV 10
Willpower:    RV 20

Health:       50
Fortune:      40
Lifestyle:    RV 10
Repute:       RV 0

Origin:

Estrellita Mercado, known as Lita to her friends and family, is a normal human. She lacks special powers of any type, whether they be inherent, knowledge based, or even as a result of fantastic equipment. However, she is a physical therapist who practices what she preaches, making her considerably strong and agile, and is responsible for the rehabilitation of Nightmask and his sister, Teddy!

Known Powers:

(none)

Limitations / Enhancements:

(none)

Equipment:

(none)

Quirks:

Stubborn: perhaps her most defining personality trait, above and beyond her need to help others, is Lita's staggering stubbornness. Once she sets her mind to something, it's almost impossible for her to change her mind. As such, in order to do so, Lita must first pass a Willpower ACT roll, at a -2 RS penalty. This, of course, assuming she even wants to!

Skills:

Medicine: Lita Mercado is an accomplished physical therapist, a doctor that works to help people function normally after extended stays in a hospital. Her Intellect and Awareness scores in such matters should be considered +1 RS for all applicable ACT rolls. Furthermore, she knows all about first aid procedures, and can easily keep a broken body from dying, if necessary.

Skill / Swords: another skill that Lita excels in is the fine art of fencing. She's good at using a foil, though she hasn't necessarily wielded any other sort of blade. In practice, then, Lita can make attacks with a foil at +1 RS to her standard Melee rank value. Furthermore, she could possibly attempt to utilize any other sort of sword without a penalty.

Contacts:

Since he's quite attracted to her, Keith Remsen could easily be considered one of Lita's contacts. He'd probably do just about anything for her, as would anybody else from the Ballad Dream Institute (Doctor Ballad, Keith, and Teddy Remsen). Furthermore, since she worked for the government for a short time in association with their Draft, Lita probably can rely on the Army as a contact, as well.

Costume:

None.

Lita isn't a super heroine, nor does she pretend to be. She simply wears comfortable clothing suitable for the occasion. For example, she'll often wear Spandex ™ body suits while engaging in strenuous physical exercise, as she often does alongside her patients to keep them motivated. Also, when working for the Army in the late eighties, Lita donned a lab coat in addition to her street clothes.

Personality:

Lita is a smart and headstrong young woman. She went into medicine in order to help people, a motive that helped to convince her to work for the Ballad Dream Institute, since it also accomplished that goal. Of course, that stubbornness has caused her to butt heads with people in the past, though she usually knows when she's being too steadfast for her own good. Usually.

Real Name: Estrellita Mercado
Occupation: physical therapist
Legal Status: American citizen with no criminal record
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: none

Height: 5' 8"
Hair: black
Eyes: brown
Weight: 115 lbs.
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: none

Story:

Estrellita Mercado is a remarkable young woman that put herself through medical school in order to get herself out of the aging Washington DC neighborhood she grew up in. Of course, she also wanted to help people, so that was another motivating factor for her going through medical school. Over time, she found her calling: the field of physical therapy.

Lita worked in this field for a couple of years when, for the first time, she met Keith and Teddy Remsen. They'd been caught in a bomb blast, and then hospitalized for months while they were patched back together by various doctors. Lita was working with Terry as the White Event occurred, a mysterious phenomenon that woke Keith from his coma, and (as they found out) gave him amazing powers.

When Doctor Ballad decided to found a Dream Institute in order to help Keith use his dream powers in a responsible and professional manner, Lita readily signed on in order to keep the Remsen kids in order (and in shape). She filled this role during the entire time the Institute was operational; it was open for over a year, until after the Pitt incident.

When this horrible thing happened, Teddy was thrown into a coma, and Keith got a bit... unstable. Furthermore, Keith got Drafted by the Army, and, without either of their paranormals handy, the Institute didn't really have any more reason to exist. As such, Doctor Ballad closed the place down, and volunteered to help the Army in its work with paranormals, since he'd been studying one for some time.

This, of course, allowed Ballad to take Teddy with him, since she was a paranormal, too. Lita, knowing where she was needed, also went with Doctor Ballad, serving to help rehabilitate paranormal draft-dodgers who were injured in their attempts to escape the Army. She fulfilled this function until after the War, when the Draft was no longer needed.

By this time, Keith had managed to get Teddy out of her coma, though he himself soon fell into one (after the events he survived in the War), retreating from the real world in order to play his days out in the dreams of others. He finally recovered from this state, though, and (having been bed-ridden for years), needed a physical therapist to get himself back in working order again.

Since Keith has always liked Lita, she'd be a likely candidate for such work. Especially since, with him and Teddy being once again aware of the outside world, the Ballad Dream Institute could once again open its doors! 

Chronology:  Nightmask #1, Nightmask #2, Nightmask #4, Untold Tales of the New Universe: Nightmask, Nightmask #5, Nightmask #6, Nightmask #7, Nightmask #8 (in a dream sequence), Nightmask #9, Nightmask #10, Star Brand #17.