Alchemy

Alchemy
Power Information
Effect	Change the molecular composition of any material to gold
Known users	Bob Bishop (deceased) Sylvia Sylar

Alchemy is the ability to transform the chemical composition of materials to gold.

Characters

• Bob Bishop had this this ability naturally. (Four Months Later...)
• Sylar has stolen this ability from Bob. (The Butterfly Effect)
• Sylvia also has this ability. (Odessa)

Limits

Bob Bishop

Bob has the ability to change the composition of objects. According to a blurb about him on the assignment tracker map, Bob can turn objects only into gold. The amount of mass he can affect at one time is unknown, though he has turned an adult male named Hampton Connolly entirely into gold (The Golden Goose). After transmutation, Hampton Connolly was carried out by four men on a stretcher, suggesting his weight may not have been significantly increased. However, it is not known whether only a shell of Hampton's form was left after transformation or whether the gold Hampton was transformed to weighed less than standard gold.

It is not yet known if there are materials Bob cannot transform. So far he has only used it to transform solids, it is unknown if it is possible to affect liquids or gases with this ability.

Since Bob's power does not automatically affect anything he touches, it must require some concentration to use.

Bob can apparently generate substantial quantities of gold over time, because he implies that his power is a significant source of the Company's funding (Four Months Later...).

Sylar

Utilizing control nearly equal to Bob's, Sylar was able to turn a gun to pure gold in a matter of seconds, only minutes after acquiring this ability.

Sylvia

When Sylvia held a plug in her hands, a golden light emanated from them and the plug turned into gold. She stated that the gold she makes is 24-carat. (Odessa)

Gallery

In 1991, Bob transmutes Elle's slushy straw.
(From the Files of Primatech, Part 7)

Bob takes an ordinary teaspoon and transmutes it into gold.
(Four Months Later...)

Bob transforms Hampton Connolly's arm...

...then his face...

...then his entire body....

...and then, Bob melts him.
(The Golden Goose)

Bob shows Donna Dunlap his golden touch.
(Donna's Big Date, Part 2)

Sylar turns a gun to gold.
(The Butterfly Effect)

Sylvia turns a plug into gold.
(Odessa)

Memorable Quotes

"Look, the type of research you're talking about is extremely expensive."

"Trust me. That won't be a problem. Let's just say we have our own private Fort Knox."

- Mohinder, Bob (Four Months Later...)

"Look what your daddy used to be able to do."

- Sylar (to Elle) (The Butterfly Effect)

Notes

• The name "alchemy" comes from Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite, who used the term to describe Bob's ability in a CBR Q&A interview.
• Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite originally held that Bob could transmute materials into substances other than gold. However, this thinking appears to have been changed. The assignment tracker map later claimed he could only convert things into gold, and Bob's ability has never been depicted as anything other than changing materials into gold. Also, Sylar turned a gun into gold while telling Elle that this was what her father could do.
• The password that Elle enters into Bob's computer in Powerless is "MIDAS". In Greek mythology, Midas was a king whose greed led the god Dionysus to curse him with the "ability" to turn everything he touched to gold -- including his own daughter.
• Peter has been in close proximity to Bob, but did not display this ability before losing his original one.

See Also

• For the ability to turn things into sand, see Granulation.
• For the ability to become gold, see Gold Mimicry.
• Alchemy -- Wikipedia