Using the Aguilar Institute as a front, the Damocles Foundation offered to help the sterile population of Almost Reno, New Mexico by using mutant and Deviant chromosomes. The next generation of children in Almost Reno all developed superhuman powers, and were kept under close watch by the Foundation.

The Damocles Foundation, through its Aguilar Institute arm, arranged to awaken Ekatarina Gryaznova from her coma and arrange for her to be selected as one of Bastion's Prime Sentinels in Operation: Zero Tolerance so that they would have an agent within that organization.

Under the guise of the Aguilar Institute, Dr. Joshua, Dr. Chandra and Dr. Ogada were brought by Gryaznova to study Meltdown, Rictor and Shatterstar in Operation: Zero Tolerance custody, but had to flee when their friends in X-Force came to rescue them.

After Gryaznova was discovered to be a traitor by Bastion, her nanotechnology was reprogrammed. The Aguilar Institute brought her to their facility in northern California and began a radical genetic treatment to counter the nanotechnology. Gryaznova was transformed into Gryphon.

Jesse Bedlam and Domino attempted to infiltrate the Institute's facility in Northern California to confront Gryaznova, but were caught by agents wearing Phaeton Series III Smart Armor. Jesse abandoned Domino, and she was captured and brought to Gryaznova.

Jesse returned with the rest of X-Force, and they fought off the Institute's agents while Jesse rescued Domino. Gryphon was badly wounded battling Domino, and set the facility on self-destruct. X-Force escaped the facility before its destruction.

When the children of Almost Reno began to die off, Odysseus Indigo had the town quarantined. He confronted X-Force on the matter, and revealed that the Aguilar Institute was part of the Damocles Foundation, and that Gryphon had been acting on a personal vendetta; the Foundation bore no ill will towards X-Force or Domino.