Marvel Reborn: Gems Of Infinite Potential

I was in the Extremis lab, astrally projected, and meditating on the Extremis enhanced pig in front of me, trying to follow its energy flows to wherever they originated from when Maya exclaimed, "This is such bullshit!" and broke my concentration.

I returned to my body and said, "What? I had almost man..." the pig went boom but was thankfully contained behind the vibranium-sapphire glass box it was in.

I sighed. "Well, I need another pig, so what is such bullshit?"

Maya threw up her hands. "Erskine's Serum. Thanks for having Natasha grab those other vials when she picked up Steve's blood, but this is such bullshit. The blood of this Logan seems like it was the key to the process. Its cells heal like nothing I have ever seen before, and even after having been frozen for half a century, they are still not just alive but aggressively hostile to all other life. One drop of that blood on a bit of organic protein, and within minutes, it had acted like the most aggressive cancer imaginable and consumed every cell present, turning them all into perfect copies of itself.

"This is the source of Captain America's healing factor, but I honestly think that was just a happy side-effect. This is what Erskine used to get his formula to rewrite the body. Ok, amazing enough, but the f.u.c.ker managed genetic engineering that would be bleeding edge today in the 1930s. Somehow he modified the Logan cells to integrate the host DNA and rebuild the subject's body, cell by cell. Except he seems to have isolated a laundry list of other physical traits and had them replace anything that they were superior to."

She shook her head and took a breath before continuing her rant. "Captain America was said to be the peak of human potential, and I think that was a totally honest statement. It's like Erskine went around the world and found whatever human was the absolute pinnacle of any given trait, isolated the DNA responsible for that trait, and programmed it into the Logan cell base. The end result is purely human, but it is the best possible human, well, except for the healing factor."

I whistled before saying, "Ok, that is some BS. Do you have any idea how he managed that? Or what role the Vita Rays played?"

"No, the technology to do this just didn't exist back then. Even if he knew exactly what he was doing and had all of the genetic samples on hand, the tech just wasn't capable of performing the needed tasks. I might be able to manage something like that with the tech in this lab, but it would take years of dedicated effort. It's like he waved his hand and just got the result he wanted.

"And the Vita Ray's, I've read Anton's notes on them, and I will test it once Blake gets me a Vita Ray source, but I still don't believe it. I mean, come on, glowing yellow healing radiation that just makes living things healthier? If that was true, you could just make a healing bed or something where you lay a person on it, and they are healed like a miracle. There has to be some downside to this." She hesitated. "Well, besides the only known source of Vita Radiation being a violently explosive chemical that explodes with more power than modern bombs."

I winced. Yeah, the safety briefing on Nitramene was a laundry list of things not to do, because it would make the substance explode. It included breathing on it too hard.

"But what purpose do you think the Vita Ray's served?" I asked again, having no real clue myself.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure, but if you want my best guess?" She looked at me, and when I nodded, she continued. "I think it plays some role in integrating the raw formula with the subject's own cells. Nothing I can find in my examination of the samples can even begin to explain how that integration is handled, so I'm going with the magical healing rays taking care of that part until, and unless, some better information comes along."

I stilled as a thought occurred to me, "I wonder..."

After a long pause on my part, Maya said, "You wonder....what?"

"You said it was like Erskine waved his hand, and his will was done, and then called them magical healing rays. You also seem very certain that the technology to do what was done did not even begin to exist at the time. Given that we know magic is real, Occam's Razor would seem to indicate that he did use a spell or spells to do it," I answered, explaining my musings.

Maya looked at me in surprise. "You mean magic can do something like that? I thought it pretty much all teleportation and energy constructs and such."

I shook my head. "No, magic is probably the most versatile thing around. If you knew the exact atomic structure of what you wanted, had the power to throw at it and were skilled enough with your spells, then you could effectively create matter out of thin air. I don't even begin to have the skill to do something like the DNA manipulation you are talking about, but I can't think of any reason that it would be impossible."

"Well, could you wave your hand or whatever and figure out if he used magic from the sample we have?" she asked in mild shock.

Again, I shook my head. "No, any such traces would be long gone, and that assumes they would have stuck around anyway. Magic and living things have an interesting relationship. But I know someone who could tell me if Erskine knew how to use magic. She might even know if he did create the Serum with magic. I think I'll pay her a visit once Blake gets a sample of Nitramene produced. I want her to look at that as well."

After thinking about the issue a bit more, I shrugged slightly and said, "Does this change anything with the Extremis plans? Was his approach with the Logan cells better?"

It was her turn to shake her head definitively in the negative. "No. Even if you ignore the energy differences, Extremis is much more precise and much more controllable. Once it is completed, we will be able to program in the exact genetic blueprint we d.e.s.i.r.e and have it reshape the subject's body to that blueprint. I'll need to isolate and extract the individual genetic improvements from Captain America's blood, but once I have that done, then I will be able to use our computing power to integrate everything and troubleshoot it all before the Extremis is created and injected. His method is amazing, and near-miraculous for his time, regardless of how he managed the mechanics of creating the Serum, but time and technology march ever onward. I can do much better with sixty years of progress."

I glanced at my watch and noticed that it was time to leave. I had a business meeting with the CEO of MGM to negotiate a deal for Netflix to stream their whole catalog. It was nowhere near as interesting as playing with magic or mad science, but appearances had to be maintained, and someone had to pay the bills. "Well, I have a Raith Industries meeting to get to. I'll let you know what I find out about the Serum."

I didn't get to make good on that promise for nearly two weeks, as it took Anton and Blake that long to produce Nitramene. Once I had a sample of that, stored in a vibranium-laced container and being held in stasis via magic, I opened a portal to Kamar-Taj and went to visit my teacher.

She stepped through her portal to meet me in her tea room with impeccable timing, just one of those many subtle indications that she was tied deeply into the Time Stone and knew what had and would happen with a degree of specificity that was unfathomable. I bowed to the waist. "Ancient One, it's a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to see you again. Anything interesting on the mystical side recently?"

"Cyttorak found another potential host and manifested. I have him trapped in a time loop in a Mirror Realm pocket dimension. That should tie him up for a good decade or so. But you didn't come to hear the news, Octavian, you came to ask for my aid."

I smiled and gave a slight head bow. "No reason to not be polite, though. I still find it perpetually amusing that you indulge me."

"You are an interesting man, Octavian. You have knowledge that you shouldn't, the knowledge that would terrify most anyone into mewling incoherence, and yet, you simply accept it and move on. You know my power better than any of my disciples, and have a deeper understanding of just how far I will go to do my duty, and yet, you treat me as a respected teacher and not with near sycophantic idolatry. You have no real qualms about coming to me to ask questions both petty and profound, and yet, whether I answer or not, you accept it either way. You offer the question and let me choose my response without pressure.

"That your relationship to power is one of extreme paradox is also odd. You will do virtually anything for power, and yet you will suddenly stop and forgo massive power without a qualm simply because you don't want to pay the price. Many others have the wisdom to refuse the proffered power, but you are near unique in that you simply cease to care about it once you have decided that a given path is not for you. So ask your questions."

"Even if you already know what they will be?" I said with a teasing smile, continuing a verbal spar that had started when we first met and continued to this day.

At the same time, we both said, "That may be so, but the proper forms must be obeyed Octavian."

"Was Dr. Erskine a Sorcerer, and did he use magic to produce his Super Solider Serum?" I said, asking my first question.

We were suddenly inside the Mirror Dimension and with a slight finger twitch from the Ancient One, I was following her as she walked through the compound and gave me an answer.

"Oh yes, young Abraham was perhaps the most gifted biomancer that I ever had the p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to teach. He came here for the first time in 1918, but he didn't seriously start on his magnum opus until he met that Logan fellow. Before then, he limited himself to minor genetic tweaks for individuals, but when he saw what Logan's blood could do, he was inspired. He even appealed to me for permission to use the Eye of Agamotto, although I think he was quite surprised when I granted it. But he was deep in meditation for nearly a month, as he scoured humanity from its first birth to its final end, and plucked the DNA of whomever in all of human history had the most superior expression of a given trait. Once he had his samples, he spun them into his base, Logan's blood, until he had his Serum," she explained, causing my eyes to widen in astonishment, and my body to stumble as I lost a step.

The peak of human potential indeed.

"And the Vita Radiation?" I asked quietly as I opened a portal and plucked the orb filled with Nitramene from where it was resting on my bed, before offering it to my teacher.

She held it up to glance at more closely, and then it appeared back in my hand, her portal formed so seamlessly that it simply appeared one instant and was gone the next.

"Chi. I am still stunned that Howard Stark managed to produce what is effectively a Chi generator, but he did, if a violently unstable one," she answered.

"Like the Iron Fist?" I said, processing the provided data and trying to produce various hypotheses for what she would say next.

She gave a slight nod. "Yes, he is probably the most prominent Chi user around. But Chi is the energy of life, every living thing produces some and radiates it. Stark's chemical supercharges the chi production of the nitrocellulose base, and the excess is given off as visible radiation where it is then absorbed by other living things and strengthens their own chi to its limits. Of course, much like with Mr. Schmidt, the individual's chi reflects their soul, and the body reflects the chi. Abraham used the Chi energy to supercharge the host's natural body. With the extra energy, it would allow the cells to partially overwrite the serum and cause the result to be shaped by the body and soul of the subject."

"Interesting, even if I wouldn't have come up with that in my wilder hypothesis. So is Chi extra-dimensional or something native to life?" I asked, continuing my role as questioning pupil eager to learn.

"Entirely native, it is one of the very few things that doesn't actually have a direct dimensional parallel. The closest would be the Phoenix Force but that is the fires of rebirth, not life," she answered, and I gave a start.

"The Phoenix Force is real?" I said, quite stupidly, it must be noted.

She smiled beatifically. "Certainly." With a flick of her hand, my soul was out of my body, and our astral forms were flying through the multiverse until we came to stop on a realm made up of nothing but the raw fires of creation and destruction, the duality only expressed as rebirth. We were only there moments before another finger flick had us back in our bodies.

"Even I need to be careful around that force. Too long there, and even the greatest of gods will die," she explained.

I gave a knowing head shake and said, "Why do I have the feeling that the only reason that you mentioned the Phoenix Force is that it will benefit me to know about it? And given what you have said, and what projects I am going to do, why do I have a feeling that what Extremis is really doing is tapping into that slight bit of potential every human has to be a host to the Phoenix Force and using the barest sliver of those flames of rebirth to rebuild the host's body along the provided lines? Almost like a Phoenix rising from its ashes, one might say."

She gave a slight smile and said, "One might think that, but I couldn't possibly comment. Now come, let's spar, and you better have kept up with your training, or I will have you back here for remedial lessons."

Her timing was again perfect as we entered the courtyard right as she mentioned sparring.

"Of course, Sensei."

We both bowed slightly to one another and then the match was on, shooting forward from all ten fingers were flaming wh.i.p.s that were coming straight at me in complete indifference to gravity. I waved my sling ring and accelerated my personal reference frame tenfold, before dancing through the lances of energy as if they were moving through molasses.

I counterattacked with a foot-long blade formed from my right hand and driven through a quick portal that opened behind my opponent's back. She smiled broadly as her body simply split in two with perfect timing as I struck nothing but air and now faced two opponents, perfectly synchronized of course. One rushed forward to close into melee range while accelerating her own reference frame to match my own. The other ripped me back into the normal flow of time and took me even further into slow time. I had barely formed a thought when her blade was resting on my neck.

Then I returned to normal time as the stasis was released, and she said, "Good match, again."