Leonization
| Project: Leonization | |
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| First Seen: | January 2004 |
Leonization is the name of a medical process that artifically retards the aging process in mutant teens. Developed in the early 70s by a CIA sponsored lab, the Leonization process was originally designed to halt and even reverse the physical effects of aging in normal people. However, the process was believed a failure until studies showed that it could potentially slow the aging process in certain younger subjects. Through extensive illegal testing, the lab concluded that the process only reacted on subjects possessing the X gene, which preluded to mutation.
Seeing as the process was worthless for their original use, Chester Whelan appropriated the resources for a new concept of his own. Already identifying rare mutants which he wished to weaponize, the Leonization process gave him a second option of disguising the true age and experience of his agents by keeping them young. The program, called Lost Boys applied the process on close to two thousand subjects over nearly thirty years.
Based around manipulation of the telephasic triggers in DNA, it both inhibits the traditional hormones for growth during puberty and renews growth cell sectors evident at that age. The process slows the traditional aging process by a factor of five. For example, Remy LeBeau undertook the process for fifteen years, yet appears to have aged only three years.
Leonization only works on mutants, and only between the onset of puberty until their final growth is reached. It needs to be applied every year to remain effective, and the initial imprinting of the process has a fatality rate over 70%. Once the process is discontinued, the aging process returns to normal without apparent side effects.
The research and documentation of the Leonization process exists only in top secret CIA archives, and no active research or systems to provide the process are known to currently exist.
