Alchemy

From Heroes Wiki

Alchemy
Bob shows Mohinder his "own private Fort Knox".
Originally held by:	Bob Bishop (deceased)
Absorbed by:	Sylar
Ability to:	Change the molecular composition of any material to gold

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

1 Characters
2 Limits
- 2.1 Bob Bishop
- 2.2 Sylar
3 Examples
4 Memorable Quotes
5 Notes
6 See Also

Characters

Bob Bishop is the only character known to have this ability naturally.
Sylar has stolen this ability from Bob.

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.

Examples

Bob takes hold of 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)

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...)

Notes

The name "alchemy" comes from Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite, who used the term to decribe Bob's power 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 has not displayed this ability.