Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 588 Puerto Rico Earthquake and the Busy Biology Lab Supervisor (First Update)

When it comes to sabotaging one's own overlord, Kamar-Taj is unparalleled in the multiverse.

For example, in this instance, Salomon directly used the souls of the Royal Guard to steal the position of Vishanti's messenger. However, Vishanti didn't bother to pursue the matter, ultimately because both parties shared the same goal—they were both direct creations of Gaia, the Earth Mother. Oshutu, the Mother of White Magic and Goddess of Storms, might think this way, but this petty goddess wouldn't tolerate any offense. No matter how serious the matter or how much magic was borrowed, she would make Salomon pay the bill. This was foreshadowed; borrowing Oshutu's power came at the greatest cost—she wouldn't even let a burn go unpunished, let alone Salomon blatantly replacing the messenger and fleecing Vishanti's kingdom.

However, Salomon was able to successfully cast the spell likely because the first Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto, stopped him, preventing Salomon's use of Vishanti's magic to nurture the souls of the Custodes from incurring Oshtu's wrath and completely disrupting the Earth Mother's plans. The three rings on Salomon's hands were also only allowed to be worn after Agamotto's approval; otherwise, Oshtu and Hogos would never have agreed to such a lenient contract.

Maya Hansen will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the Golden Armor Guard, evaluating the entire system's strengths and weaknesses from genes to organs and tissues. This will be compared with the biological laboratory's existing technology and future plans to create a more perfect and powerful warrior. The Extremis virus, a gene-editing tool capable of DNA methylation, is widely used in biological laboratories due to its powerful gene-editing capabilities. Maya Hansen intends to cut gene fragments from the Golden Armor Guard and splice them into experimental subjects to verify the epigenetic and genetic functions of those specific genes.

This is a very tedious experiment that requires sequencing the genes of the Imperial Guard.

The process involves a vast amount of repetitive work, thousands of cuts and splices, followed by comparisons and functional annotations with Salomon's genetic information and the Human Genome Database, RNA interference experiments, expression profiling, linkage analysis, and genome association analysis. This entire process is undertaken just to determine the function of a small segment of DNA, and the workload is immense.

"This is the Extremis's most powerful ability: achieving direct control of the brain over autonomous biological functions. During the initial autopsies, we found traces of the Extremis in the nervous system of the Imperial Guard. This open interface allows the brain to consciously control instincts that are normally regulated by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and digestion." Maya Hansen seemed to be giving Salomon a lesson. As a top expert in genetics and virology, she was indeed qualified to tutor Salomon in this area, as she led the scientific application of all magical biotechnology in the biological laboratory.

In addition, Salomon gave her trinkets that enhanced her intelligence, so almost no scientific research problem could stop her.

"This conscious connection between thought and the body's basic instincts is the most powerful fundamental function of genetically modified soldiers. It is speculated that this is the first step in the preparation for the genetically modified soldier surgery, and also the first step in all modifications," she said. "However, the nervous system of the test subjects is much more complex. The transplanted meninges and nerve nodes completely change the body's neural structure, strengthening and altering brain function. In order to mimic the efficiency of your nervous system and brain, we must add a series of nerve nodes and special glands. This is not good news. Although the difficult problem is solved, there is a lot of repetitive work and cultivation time, because the special organs we discovered are all specifically cultivated for the test subjects' genes. In other words, it is almost a native organ. To complete this project, the entire experimental cycle was extended to ten years later."

Fortunately, Wakanda's high-tech experimental equipment could solve some of the problems. Some of the large equipment needed for the experiments was still in Wakanda's underground laboratories, so she had to schedule appointments to use it. However, she still refused to reveal her current projects to any Wakandans. She only shared some of her alchemical pharmacology and biochemistry findings with Wakanda's research department.

As a component of the life support and reinforcement systems of powered armor, various drugs are also part of the biological laboratory's projects.

The synthesis of heart-shaped grass has been conducted in secrecy within the Wakanda royal family. Wakanda scientists have analyzed the extremely complex secondary metabolites of heart-shaped grass and identified flavonoids, terpenes, nitrogenous alkaloids, and sulfur-containing compounds. Their effects include, but are not limited to, interactions with protein receptors that regulate lung endurance and those that enhance cognitive sharpness. Some heart-shaped grass secondary metabolites exhibit high specificity to different receptor sites in the body, acting similarly to certain hormones, such as strengthening the sympathetic nervous system and maintaining adrenaline secretion. The chemical structures of some secondary metabolites are similar to those of endogenous molecules, which can modulate pain perception or the brain's perception of acute pain, temporarily raising the pain threshold.

However, no matter how clever Wakanda's scientists were, and no matter how many heart-shaped herb secondary metabolites they synthesized, they couldn't achieve the same effects as consuming the herb itself. Without Bastet's divine power to participate in the reaction, all the test subjects injected with the synthetic potion only met with death. Therefore, the alchemical potion from the Immortal City became the technology most desired by the Wakanda royal family, especially King T'Chaka.

He couldn't possibly base the succession to the throne on the vague approval of a deity; he wanted stability, he wanted the Wakandan throne to endure. Therefore, as a condition for exchange between the departments of alchemical pharmacology and genetic science, Wakanda had to offer something that would satisfy Salomon. However, due to Wakanda's lack of surplus human resources, another plan to recruit volunteers for the Martian foundry was rejected. Instead, a project led by Shuri was proposed: the powered armor stored in the underground vault would be equipped with a completely new life support system, and energy improvements would be developed by Wakanda's science department. Biology for machinery—that was the theme of this exchange. Salomon wasn't worried that this exchange would displease the Black Panther goddess Bastet, because divine power and alchemical potions were fundamentally different. Even if the Wakandans did use alchemical technology to synthesize a heart-shaped herbal potion, it wouldn't achieve the original's effects.

"Don't you think I have enough work already, Salomon!" The head of the biology lab yelled, hands on her hips, at her boss's unreasonable demand for overtime. Her dark circles under her eyes showed how busy she had been; she simply couldn't agree to such a small request.

"This thing triggered major earthquakes in Puerto Rico."

"This is just a vial of blood. Unless the owner of this vial of blood..." She didn't even bother to frown. "I don't have the manpower to analyze this for you. You can ask the lab you bought to study it. I'm very busy with my communications with Wakanda."

"Remember where I went the day I brought back the Divine Source, Maya?" Salomon placed the blood vial on the table. "Puerto Rico, otherwise how did Whitehall's head come about—hopefully his brain is thriving in the incubator and the illusions created by the Samaritans. We need his brain to solve problems; that stuff is far more useful than artificial intelligence. Speaking of which, this stuff is blood mutated by Terrigen, a special product of the combination of Kree and human DNA. I need you to find something that can suppress its special components."

Whitehall's brain is well preserved and remains active to this day.

"Who are you going to take on this time?"

"No, who are they?" Salomon shook his head. He was also a member of the biological lab, working diligently and without complaint under Maya Hansen's wing. "A group of people who don't consider themselves human." Salomon thought for a moment, realizing that this wasn't quite accurate, because Coulson's attitude had been quite good when he went to collect the sample. "It should be said, some mongrels who consider themselves superior to humans."

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(End of this chapter)