How does it work? Like this: The first thing Legacy-1 and -2 did was search for an x-factor in a person. If it found none, it died without infecting. If, however, one was found, the victim was attacked. BOTH -1 and -2 began inserting introns (junk DNA sequences) into the transcription codings of the victim's m-RNA. The purpose was to so thoroughly mess up replication and transcription that end result would be that the victim would die when their body could no longer create healthy cells.
However, -1 and -2 did have a significant difference and it was Stryfe's sadism that influenced his desire to place both in the pod destined for Sinister. Legacy-1 attacked general transcription and replication of *all* cells. It really didn't matter where. The end was messy and non-selective. This process was accelerated much like a fast-replicating cancer, which is why Illyana died so quickly. Every system was hit simultaneously and total failure came fast.
Legacy-2, however, was much closer to Stryfe's original template and more in tune to his desire to stir a species war between humans and mutants. Its attacks were *selective*, working *only* on the x-factor polygene. The net result was that a victim would eventually lose control of their parabilities...and death would come much, much more slowly. *That's* why Pryo still lives, years after infection
Legacy-3, unlike -1 and -2, was an *UNEXPECTED* mutation of the original strain. Stryfe, did *not* plan it. Legacy-3 was, actually, Hank McCoy's fault. Recall that issue where Infectia was dying of Legacy and Hank, when she was at death's door, opened her containment chamber and took her into the open air? Well, I came upon an idea why Infectia had even lived as long as she had: her power was working overtime to beat off the infection. It was failing, of course, but in doing so, it *accidentally* caused a replication error in the Legacy-2 viroid that was killing her. It stripped the pre-coded conditioning which Legacy-1 and -2 both had: to search for an x-factor polygene and, if none was found, *not* to infect.
With this coding gone, the Legacy viroid was now a 'free agent' of sorts, capable of infecting any living being that fit within the parameters of its general original template (ie, hominids only; it didn't attack dogs or cats). When Hank opened that containment chamber and let Infectia out for one last look at the night, he inadvertently released this new viroid, Legacy-3, into the world.
Now, some problems
How is it transmitted? Well, I designed it as an aerobe; that is, it's air-borne. I specifically asked Fabian if that was going to be problem, telling him that it meant high infection rates in a short period of time, especially in the case of Legacy-3, which had no encoded stop-gap. He replied that he didn't have a problem with that but that he wasn't sure it would impact how he and Scott wrote it or if BOB would approve of it in the final analysis
Why is it taking so long to cure? As I designed it, it was completely incurable. You simply cannot create an antivirus for a viroid. It's apples and oranges, in spite of the similarity in names. Plus, considering what the viroid does to a body, only a high-level geneticist with the right tools would be able to even *contemplate* a reversal of Legacy's effects. And, even then, it would require a complete mapping of the x-factor polygene (if the victim is a mutant) or, worse still, the entire human genome just to get to Square One. When I told Fabian this, I gave him an example of what I had in mind: Scott and Jean mourning the death of their only daughter ten years from now, having been infected with Legacy. The notion struck me that we haven't even cured something as 'simple' as influenza (the Flu) so how the devil could we even consider curing something as advanced as Legacy, a monstrous organism designed around a biological weapon that won't even be built for another two millennia?
