Chapter 26 – Bio-Alchemy

"Do you know what Alchemy is?" Phillip asked Toomes. He just heard that Toomes escaped from prison and went straight to his house. If he didn't discover the underground base then Phillip/Mason wouldn't be talking about it.

"Alchemy is the creation of something useful using magical flora and fauna with the aid of a cauldron. At least that is how I interpret it based in stories." Mason didn't let Toomes answer as he blabbered on.

"Cauldron allows for heat and cold to transmute these ingredients into pills or potions in those stories. We don't have any cauldron capable of doing that and we don't have any of those wonderful ingredients. How can we practice alchemy?"

At this time Toomes just looks at Mason. He was listening closely. So Mason continued.

"For replacement of cauldron I used the bodies of animals and plants, and for the ingredients I used the reactions of their bodies. The simplest form of bio-alchemy is purification and essence extraction. Plants filter liquids and intakes what they need. But if you control everything and stimulate certain parts of the plant, they can create some oddity. I have been able to create fruits that can be said as a lesser potion. Animals on the other hand reacts to things. Their bodies produce certain stuff in response to what happens to them inside and outside. It's a matter of experimenting and understanding everything that led to this fake alchemy." Mason checked if Toomes is understood him and then he continued.

"At least that was the theory. Years of experiments have gained me some result but what is far more interesting is how a human body react. We have what they call an x-gene. It seems that humans have forcibly halted their own evolution. The more they hate mutants, the more the next evolution gets suppressed. But nature will not be denied and mutants continue to appear every day."

"I think I am close to discovering how to identify one's mutation and safely trigger the that mutation. Activating the dormant power of man. Tommes, with this we can be better than spiderman. Stronger than Iron Man." Mason still had a lot to say but Koro cut him off and allowed him to dream of other things.

Koro knew that Phillip have an idea and even produced some results. But in the end, that isn't enough to consider it as another branch of science. He said it himself, it is just fake alchemy. Doing such research that needs the sacrifice of people is stupid. His chances are too low and the sacrifice is too great.

Phillip doesn't seem to be the type that would cause much changes to the timeline. This gives Koro some time to explore this world. Master said that each loop is about three hundred years. If he starts exactly at 1800 and the loop ends in 2023, that's not three hundred years. Theres only one possible explanation for the lack of time. The stone keeper did something.

2017 was the time that Doctor Strange fought Dormammu. That was also the time that he mastered the use of the time stone. If he ever did something or will do something that would be after he defeated Dormammu.

Attacking Kamar Taj would be suicide. But its not the time to second guess himself. Maybe he does not need to attack. Strange can be reasoned with. Its worth a try.

Koro found Kamar Taj in a civil war. The old masters are supporting strange as he uses the time stone to gather as much power as possible. Where he will release that power is the question. They can create portals connecting anywhere. Strange could possibly use it to destroy Asgard or Thanos. But what if those were not the intended targets?

He helps the other sorcerers that he knew. Wang was having trouble fighting three sorcerers at once and Mordo is being overwhelmed by seven masters. After Koro has helped distract some sorcerers, they were able to reach doctor strange. They were too late though as doctor strange opened a portal and sent the collected power of time stone somewhere.

"What do you think you are doing doctor strange?" asks Koro as he observes the civil war among the sorcerers.

"What do you think you are doing?" Strange repeats the question in a whisper. He then looks at Koro and shouts, "What do I THINK I am doing?"

Doctor Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto and focuses it on the apple placed in the table. Time should flow back and forth according to his wish but the apple became two or even disappeared. When Karl Mordo saw that he dropped his weapons.

"What did you do?" Mordo asks, shock appearing on his face.

"You shouldn't have messed with time." Wang looks furious at Strange but held his hand and did not attack.

"Its not me." Strange said in a voice full of anger. "Some idiot out there somehow used the time stone to view thousands, possibly millions of possible futures. Only when he did it, he only used the power of the time stone. Causing many points of divergence where what he saw actually happened or is bound to happen. But the problem is that a few unique points of divergence in the flow of time carries more than one."

"What does that mean?" Wang asks doctor Strange.

"It means that this reality is given more than one part to play. We will play our roles until the time he stopped looking and then play our next role. Like a..a.." strange didn't know how to say it to others.

"Like in a loop." Koro added.

"Yes. Like we are in a loop. It depends on how many points our reality needs to play." Strange looks at everyone but sees that they have o idea how to help. "ugh, this is driving me nuts. How many realities did he see?"

Koro asks strange, "What was it that you did to try and correct this problem?"

"I simply used a ton of power from the time stone, with help from the various sanctums and Kamar Taj itself to send a burst of power to create a ripple in time. Its supposed to bring something from outside this loop into this reality. I just need to find it and trace it back to where it entered to break this loop." Doctor strange was speaking slowly at this time. It seems that he is trying to explain something complex in a way that even children will understand or he is having trouble staying calm. Koro thinks he is explaining it in a simple way.

Koro takes a deep breath and admits to strange that he is from outside this reality. Strange said that he noticed it a while ago but Koro has already blended with this reality. Its possible that Koro has experienced a few cycles in this loop.

When Koro told them about Phillip, they were excited. Strange could break the loop through Phillip. They opened a portal to capture Phillip only to find an ordinary house. There was no underground basement. Mordo and Wang attacked the ground but they didn't see any trace of activity or change.

Strange felt something in the air. Its different from the power of time stone but it feels similar. Before he can say anything, a jet decloaked and a group of people approached. They were led by a bald man in a wheelchair.

"If you are looking for Mason, he travelled to the future. I was able to read his mind before he used his ability." The bald man said.

"Ability?" Wang asks.

"Mason became a mutant."