Alchemy Is Blue

With a deafening roar the globe of blue liquid exploded overhead, illuminating the dark room with a brilliance brighter than the sun at midday and blinding those nearest while splattering them in burning petroleum.  Several black robed figures dove out of the conflagration to escape the flames that hungrily consumed their less fortunate brothers.  The alchemist did not pause to admire the damage as he had already turned to engage his closest assailant, who was mid-transformation in to something clearly not human.   Curiosity to see to see what form his attacker chose almost lost him the initiative, however reflexes born from decades of combat took over and he threw the last of his grenades, catching the creature mid-leap.  The assailant’s body melted as the missile shattered on impact, drenching the man-creature in bright green acid.  So potent were the contents that by the time momentum carried the creature to the alchemist’s feet, all that was left was a fizzling, liquid goo.

I’m getting too old for this, he thought, as his mind raced to think of an escape.  His enemy was too well prepared, too numerous and too organized.  I have become overconfident, and should have seen the trap before it was sprung.

He paused long enough to choke down a draught of healing and felt a surge of warmth as his metabolism kicked in to over-drive and started repairing his damaged body.  Mixing ingredients as he walked quickly over the still foaming puddle, he tried to think how the day had gone so wrong.

Ethan had been one of his better students.  Smart, ambitious, and having a tenacity to master even the most arcane aspects of their art, he had become in time a trusted friend.  Together they had achieved so much.  He had relied on Ethan.  Trusted Ethan.  And now, he was betrayed by the very person he had helped the most. 

Bullets bounced off his robes, nearly causing him to drop the smoking container in his hand.  Chemistry could transform his clothes in to a material stronger than Kevlar, but it could not stop all of the momentum each round imparted.  Liquid silver poured out in front of him, rapidly coalescing in to a wall of diamond 10 feet high.   

He must have been planning this for months. No, years. Two senior alchemists, 6 fully trained journeymen, at least a dozen acolytes. Not to mention the scores of lesser, imps and quasits.  All coordinated, all coming at me in carefully timed waves.  A part of his mind marveled at the ingenuity of it all, while the other part was more preoccupied with his survival.  It would be a bitter irony to have spent so much effort mastering the art of extending human life beyond the biological norms only to lose it in a moment of distraction.

Grenades, gone.  Acid bombs, gone. Healing potions…gone.  I guess I’ll just have to pull a rabbit out of my hat, he smirked to himself.  There was irony in that too, as it was his fascination with prestidigitators as a child that made him desire to be learn magic.  Magic. In the end it was only slight of hand and misdirection.  Too bad magic isn’t real, I really could use some now.

With a sigh, he started swallowing one potion after another.  Game time, Ethan. You think you can best your former master?  Have at me then!

It was beyond loud.  The megajoules of energy required to shatter diamond were not unleashed silently.  You must be desperate, he thought.  How many of your associates did you kill breaking that wall? Did you think I didn’t see that coming?  Or that I was so old and slow I had forgotten to how to morph away my ears, thicken my skull, or transmute the air in to an ablative cushion? 

He emerged from the cloud of diamond dust, 9 feet tall with the body of a grizzly bear, tearing the head off the journeyman alchemist closest to him with a single blow.  He picked up a second and threw it like a rag doll, the man’s body breaking against the far wall like a broken egg.  He was halfway to a third when a fist, stronger than any human’s had a right to be, caught him on his left kidney, smashing to his spine. He had turned off his pain receptors, but his body still registered the shock.

Stone skin. Giant strength. He probably took speed as well.  And I’ll bet my homunculus he probably transfigured his hand in to a hammer on top of it all.

Rolling to his right he tried to get up, but something was clearly damaged and it was all he could do to get to his knee.  The fist came crashing down in a blur.  He crossed his arms to absorb the blow and felt an arm break.  Christ, he really amped himself up. He’ll be in a coma for days once those buffs wear off.

With his good hand he started throwing everything that was left in his pockets at his rival’s face.  Phosphorescent ball bearings, gold flakes, a vial of oxybreath, eagle feathers, cinnabar, a flask of radium, the last drops of a potion of levitation. The Altoids can surprised even him. I forgot I had that in there.  

“You are beaten!” screamed Ethan. “Old man, admit it.  You are outnumbered and outmatched. You back is to the wall.”  He paused. “OK, the floor.  I was being metaphorical.” He spat as the alchemist chocked on a laugh.  “That was a nice trick with the diamond wall.  Did you use graphene as the base?”

“Shall I tell you all my secrets?”, replied the alchemist.  He coughed once, and was dismayed to see blood.

“I have all your secrets, fool.  I have surpassed you, even, I think”.

“Buckyballs.”  His enhanced metabolism was consuming the nerve numbing potion faster than he anticipated.  Spasms of pain started to fire all over his body. 

“What?  Is that some new slang from your grandchildren?”

“No, buckyballs.  Harder to work with than graphene, but they transform faster.  I wonder how long it will take you to figure out the matrix.”  He smiled.  Even in the face of death, it was good to keep your sense of humor.

“I hate you. Always had to have the last laugh, didn’t you?  Today I have your life.  Tomorrow I will have your lab and all of those precious secrets will be revealed to me.  How does it feel to know your life’s work will soon be mine?”

He pressed his fist in to the alchemists ribs. Hard.  So hard.  The alchemist nearly blacked out.  The buffs were almost done being flushed from his cells.  The pain was overwhelming, but he had to fight through it to keep a level head.  He laid on his back, panting.  A few more moments, then it will be over.

The master alchemist named Ethan raised his fists high overhead, ready to strike the blow that would surely crush his skull.

“Any last words old man?  Want to beg me for your life?” 

Such an ass.  When did he become such an ass? At least I won’t have to listen to your petulance anymore.

Even though he knew it was coming, had mentally prepared for it, and even welcomed it’s coming, the shock still took him unawares.  In the space of a breath, the chemicals his skin had been leaching reacted in microseconds.  The temperature inside his body dropped rapidly as the endothermic reaction leached heat like a dessert sucks in rain.  The rapid release of photons as thermal energy was transformed cast a cerulean glow that made his body look like it was encased in faerie light.  It was eerie. It was beautiful.

You’ll never have my secrets.  Never.  Relaxing his grip on life, he let out his last breath with a sigh. The last glow from his mutation fading with it.  As his mind slipped away, he was surprised with its final conscious thought: Why is alchemy always blue?