Beast: By the stars and garters of Betsy Ross--That's it! That's exactly it! I've been exercising all my scientific expertise exactly where HE expected I would! The whole time I thought we were ferreting out the truth about Stryfe's Legacy Virus, we were actually chasing our collective tails! He was indicating one direction, and in our ignorance we acquiesced accordingly! Hmmm. Now to see what we shall REALLY see.... ((Whatever the heck he meant by that, we don't know yet.))
1996-MAR X-Men Unlim 10 Beast makes some discoveries about the Legacy Virus using the Danger Room to simulate some atom building blocks he was able to manually manipulate. McCoy's Virus research stymied when he is captured by the Age of Apocalypse's "Dark Beast."
1996-DEC X-Force 54 Absalom is killed by fellow External Selene
1997-MAR Cable 41 "Abyss" infected with Legacy Virus
1997-? Maverick (1997) 1 "Maverick" suffers through the Legacy Virus's final stages but instead of killing him, the Virus goes into remission
1997-MAR X-Men 62 Wolverine reveals that Clive Reston had contacted him to say Sebastian Shaw is getting involved with the Legacy Virus. The X-Men travel to Hong Kong and meet with Shang-Chi and Reston, who tells them Shaw is trying to find the Shang-Chi's late father's Elixir Vitae in order to test it as a treatment for the Virus and possibly hoard it as a personal safeguard against infection.
1997-APR X-Men 63 Sebastian Shaw is given a stolen disk with Moira MacTaggert's Legacy Virus research by Dr. Rory Campbell. Shaw is now poised to "leapfrog to the head of the pack in the race for a cure to the Legacy Virus."
1997-MAY X-Men 64 The Kingpin is revealed to have possession of the Elixir Vitae. Sebastian Shaw, the Kingpin and the X-Men have a three way confrontation about who will possess the Elixir. Storm destroys the Kingpin's laboratory and the Elixir as well, to prevent it from remaining in the hands of those who would use it for evil.
1997-AUG X-Factor 129 Jamie Madrox, "The Multiple Man," who recently resurfaced, explains to Shard his boggling past: "I was infected with the Legacy Virus a while back, and in an attempt to 'cure' me a powerful mutant named Haven accidentally killed me. But only my body with the virus was dead. Apparently, I must have subconciously known that if I stayed split inito seperate bodies, the virus would be contained in one and not duplicated into the others. The shock of my death caused a memory loss and for a while I didn't know who I was or even that I had a 'twin' running around." Confused yet?
1997-DEC Generation X 33 Moira MacTaggert and Sean Cassidy ("Banshee") discuss the Legacy Virus at the Muir Island Research Center off the Coast of Scotland:
"...It could be a prion disease, Sean," Moira says. She speculates that the Legacy Virus could be from the same class of infectious agents that cause Mad Cow Disease, which do not attack the cell like normal viruses do, but act on celluar proteins. The specific celluar protein in mutants that is attacked by the prion she believes is the same certain protein that gives mutants their "powers." "It induces a change in the conformation of the protein structure, thereby altering the structure that the protein builds."
This they discuss as they view the molecular structure of the disease in a holographic simulation chamber, not unlike in appearance to the recently departed Xavier Mansion Danger Room
1997-DEC Excalibur 115 Moira MacTaggert locks herself in her lab at Muir Island with the intention of not coming out until she finds a cure for the Legacy Virus, or she dies from it. She is going to run an isolation experiment. The doors close and are magnetically sealed and the rest of Excalibur and Sean Cassidy look on in horror as Rahne jumps in just before the doors seal shut.
