There, a young Elizabeth would choose engineering and computer programming as her areas of individualized focus. She graduated at the top of her class, moving on to MIT where she, again, finished above all of her peers in both undergrad and graduate school, where she obtained her PhD in mechanical and bio-engineering. Consequently, she came to know more about super powers than most everyone else. She has grown into a leader on the study of the people who have them, and on how to join hyper-beings with technology in a cohesive manner. She also spent decades as an expert in hyper-anthropology, which is the study of how people with powers integrate into society, and the effects from it. To that end, she been one of the founding members of New Hero Hospital – an institution which specializes in all of areas of expertise. One of New Hero Hospital’s most important functions, however, is to serve humans who’ve recently gained powers for the first time, after going through some catastrophic event – as was the case with Byron Jones, a man who had been struck by an exploding star crash-landing on Earth. The star had been laced with blue energy, and the combination of Byron’s anatomy, along with the composition of the star, and the fact that he was holding an artificially intelligent camera at the time, transformed him into hyper-being, who was able to absorb light and redirect it into powerful bursts of energy from his hands.

His power, however, was uncontrollable at first, as his body would simply absorb all light in the vicinity when he was conscious. But after being taken to New Hero Hospital, Dr. ESP and her colleagues were able to develop a suit that would allow him to control his powers. Byron took on the name Shuttershock, and eventually left the hospital after being recruited by Captain Noble to join him on a series of missions. Those missions had taken him on an incredibly crazy journey throughout the universe, but most importantly, it had also reunited him with Lacy, whom he believed to have been lost after the incident with the star.

She wasn’t lost, just very far away, on the other side of the galaxy. And she now had hyper-abilities of her own. The only problem was that Lacy (now known as Lightrider) had been transformed into a being of pure living light, which meant that when she came in contact with Byron, a living black hole, it caused a catastrophic chain reaction. For this reason their reunion, during a series of battles with the villainous Fata Morgana, had been short-lived. After defeating the wicked Fata and returning to Earth, Shuttershock traveled back to New Hero Hospital to see Dr. ESP.

After listening to Shuttershock’s detailed account of what happened during the meeting between him and Lightrider, Dr. ESP concluded that Shuttershock’s abilities must have increased in power over his time working with Captain Noble, which would account for why his suit failed to cease his absorption of light. She explained, an increase in power would nullify his original suit’s calibration, especially if Lightrider was made of pure light. So, Dr. ESP put Shuttershock through a battery of tests to analyze his abilities again, and obtain updated data pertaining to his powers.

It was a long process, as Dr. ESP was constantly swamped with other duties after recently being appointed head of NHH, replacing her fellow hospital co-founder and colleague Dr. Dennis “Destructo” Daniels, who had become obsessed and consumed with the study of blue matter. The extended timeline greatly frustrated Shuttershock, but he understood. Then finally, after two weeks, Dr. ESP summoned him to the newly finished planetarium. He arrived around noon, but found the massive dome-shaped room empty. Before long, he heard Dr. ESP’s voice through a speaker. She asked him to strip, which was a request that didn’t sit well with him.

The brilliant scientist explained to him that it was a necessary step if he wanted to gain the ability to see his fiance again, and so he obliged. Suddenly, he was sprayed by a powerful blast of air that sanitized his body, and suspended him in the air simultaneously. He yelled for Dr. ESP to stop, as he was alarmed, frightened and angry all at once. The process continued, though, with the ceiling to the chamber opening wide above him, exposing a tube pointed directly at the sun.

The rays of light were amplified exponentially, filling Shuttershock with massive amounts of starlight. His anatomy was surging with power, and pushed to its threshold. He felt as if he were going to explode.Then the air blasting him became riddled with a mysterious, elastic substance. It coated his entire frame from head to toe. It was like he was being spray-painted. After several minutes the process was complete, and Shuttershock was dropped onto a mat underneath him. He was shaking and exhausted, but he was mostly glad the experience was over.

Dr. ESP’s voice came through the speakers again, directing him to cover himself with a blanket. Once he was robed, the chamber door opened and she was standing outside. He asked her what in God’s name she did to him. Dr. ESP explained that, according to the data she collected from his tests, he indeed had become more powerful. The potential for future increases were high as well. Therefore, she determined it would be fruitless to simply recalibrate his existing suit, since the stronger he grows, the more light he will absorb consciously and subconsciously. A more adaptive and flexible, dynamic solution needed to be applied.

Thus, she devised an organic substance, derived from the blue matter that had contributed to his initial transformation. It was developed in one of NHH’s studies, seeking to bio-engineer the interstellar material into human bodies. It essentially used blue matters’ organic compound structure; the material originally existed within a star unaffected, so Dr. ESP used this resistive power, and applied it to human skin. It’s basically a sunblock, powerful enough to enable a person to walk on the surface of the Sun without harm.

She continued to explain that the substance was fused with Shuttershock’s body, allowing it to integrate into his skin on a cellular level. Therefore, he would automatically employ a resistance of light on the subconscious level, an ability powerful enough to block light from the greatest of stars, unless he consciously chose to absorb it as he normally does. Dr. ESP concluded her explanation by telling Shuttershock she turned his skin into the only suit he would ever need.

Shuttershock inquired why he had to be immersed in sunlight during the process. Dr. ESP explained that intensified starlight needed to be introduced during fusion, to ensure every hyper-cell in his body was activated, so it could integrate with the substance. His anatomy had to be pushed to the brink of destruction as well, ensuring his threshold for light-absorption was maximized, and balanced with the blue matter material. If there was any room for him to absorb more light, the blue matter substance might not block all light energy in the future. Since she cranked up the star intensity, though, he was made to withstand absorbing the magnitude of light-energy from the greatest stars in the galaxy. She then summarized, the process meant he could not only reunite with Lightrider, but they could spend every moment of their lives next to each other, and he would never have to worry about taking an ounce of life from her again.

Shuttershock was overjoyed. He could not express his gratitude enough for what Dr. ESP had done. Hope had been restored to him, and as soon as he was fully recovered and Dr. ESP finished her post-op observations, he planned on returning to find the love of his life.

This has always been the pattern of Elizabeth, to help others solve seemingly unsolvable problems. And her work continues to be groundbreaking, revolutionary, and extremely valuable to the hyper-human community, and the world as a whole.

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