Isabel

It had been quite the party. Isabel woke up on the floor of the small apartment with the worst hangover she had ever experienced. Ten other people were sprawled out over the apartment, all of them had been wasted out of their minds. Isabel sat up slowly, trying to remember events from the night before. She stumbled around the apartment looking for some missing... belongings, but the screaming pain was making it too hard to bear.

She collapsed and fell on the floor, before she remembered a remedy for this situation. She could reconfigure the molecular structure of her brain to remedy the hangover. She stopped looking for her missing clothes, and instead her skin morphed into the missing garment and was shed from her body. She looked in the mirror, at the mess that was her face. Her hair was in disarray, and her makeup had smeared off. No problem. By simply shifting the molecular structure of her face and hair she looked as fabulous as she had last night. No shower needed either, just transform dead skin cells, dirt, and such into clean body mass. Finally, she emitted a fragrance of perfume she had formulated internally.

She quietly left the apartment, and quickly left the building, finding herself in downtown Island City. Isabel was a freshman (or fresh-woman, as she would say) at the Island City University. Her powers had turned her from a shy and reserved high school girl, into a bona-fide model with a hedonistic philosophy. Isabel's alluring dark eyes were complemented by her brunette hair and her perfect tan. She could stand at any height that she chose, but her legs were... well you get the idea. She used her powers of shapeshifting and elemental transmutation to embody feminine aesthetic perfection.

Isabel caught the bus, and showed a bus pass that she "stole" from the apartment. As she sat by the window, a stranger came up and sat next to her. One doesn't need spider-senses or visions to see this guy was bad news. He reached out towards her. She wasn't sure what he was reaching for, but she wasn't about to find out. She grab his arm and his fingers.

"This isn't the Please Touch Museum!" She exclaimed, because all crimefighters need catchy one-liners. She bent his fingers backward until they broke. He screamed, and the bus stopped. With his free hand he took out a switchblade and went to stab her. She grabbed the blade and didn't flinch. Then she headbutted him. Embarrassed, he fled off the bus. Isabel reconfigured her forehead and pulled the blade out of her hand, then healed her hand. She gave the bus driver a thumbs up, and he continued driving.

*****

Earl got out of his car in the parking garage next to Redmond Tower. He was dressed in a suit and tie, over-coat, with short, neatly trimmed, dark hair and glasses. His whole appearance exuded his position in the Upper-middle class. As he turned, he saw Isabel, in her more casual dress with a short skirt.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I don't know. Can you?" She said as she moved in. She grabbed his neck, sticking a pin in it. Earl blacked out, but Isabel caught him. Holding the man in her arms she got a good look at him. She took a survey of him with her molecular vision. Now his DNA, form, and clothing would be stored in her "memory" for a period of time (which she had not yet tested the limits). Isabel also needed to be careful not to stay in one form for too long. This would result in her being stuck in that form permanently.

Isabel grabbed the keys out of Earl's pocket. She opened the trunk of his car, and then carried him and stuffed him in. Then Isabel turned into Earl. She walked toward the elevator to complete her mission.

Isabel had received intelligence that the formula which had given her powers had come from Redmond Enterprises. The company was also the only distributor of shiftogen, a key element in the formula, which can transmute into any element. Isabel was determined to get every last trace of the element out of the hands of this company.

Once in the elevator, she opened the secret compartment (behind the elevator buttons), which revealed and hand scanner. She pressed her hand on the scanner. With Earl's brain she could access his memories, which came to her as they were relevant (hence how she found the scanner). The elevator started to go down. It went down three levels to the ground-level, then continued to plummet downward. Finally the ride came to a stop, and the doors opened to a small hallway with more security checkpoints. Earl's motor-memory kicked in, and Isabel passed all the checkpoint, without any suspicion.

The final doors opened to reveal a huge, state-of-the-art laboratory. Isabel walked around, and none of the technicians were any wiser. Some addressed her as "Earl" and she even responded with some nicknames when appropriate.

Finally, she approached six liter-sized tubes of shiftogen. She looked around to see if anyone was watching. She quickly stuffed each of the tubes into her over-coat, into which they were absorbed. Then she left, as calmly as she came... until someone else walked into the vicinity. It wouldn't be long before they discovered the missing vials. She walked faster, out the main entrance, passing a security guard and all the security check-points, making it all the way to the elevator. The elevator had started to close, when the alarm sounded. The technicians had realized that the tubes were gone, and they sounded the alarm. The guard stopped the elevator doors from closing.

"Sorry, sir. You know the drill." The guard went to pat Earl down, and found nothing. "I'm going to need you to stay here until I get the OK from inside."

Isabel didn't have time to wait. They would look at the footage and find Earl was the culprit soon enough. She jumped the guard. Now, Isabel had done many things in her life that she regretted, but this would make it quickly to the top of her list. The guard pulled his gun out and shot her in the stomach. Awfully close to the liver. She grabbed onto the lattice on the elevator ceiling, pulled herself up, and wrapped one leg around his neck, all in one swift motion. With the other she knocked the gun out of the guards hand. She squeezed Earl's meaty leg, dressed in suit-pants, around the guard's neck just until he passed out. Then she pushed a light fixture upward, to reveal the emergency exit. She jumped up, and climbed her way out.

*****

Miles Redmond reviewed the footage over and over again to learn everything he could about this new opponent. Security found Earl in the trunk of his car. Only those in the NOVUS Project knew about the break-in, or even the existence of shiftogen. They were studying the element to engineer practical uses.

Miles needed to find a way to locate this chameleonic shapeshifter. This person was the key to the answers they were seeking.