White Alligator

White Alligator was the name of a project in Academy City meant to move past the limits set in the Parameter List, but ended up differently from it's originally intended purpose.

The original plan
At first, White Alligator was a project whose primary goal was to move past the limits set by the Parameter List, as most individual Espers, however, simply have a lack of potential and as such are unable to move past a certain set limit. Such are most Espers of Level 1, 2 and 3. Ironically, while most people think that there is a limit that is not possible to bypass, it has been revealed that it actually is possible, but would require simply too much financial resources and time and as such, Academy City rather sabotages classes as means to conceal the truth. This indicates the experiment might have been an attempt to overcome the said financial shortages.

Outcome
While originally meant to reduce the needs for additional funding and create more powerful Espers, this project turned into a Level 4 mass production plan to use against the more irregular Level 5s, as the Level 4s were considered more stable and considerably easier to control. Those gathered to be members of White Alligator had all been girls in their early teens. Supposedly, this was based on a theory that things like high sensitivity, the durability girls had in order to withstand the pain of childbirth, and the unstable mentality of early puberty would be optimal for that special type of power development. While initially the Level 4 espers in the project had various powers, the training they underwent was beyond harsh. Not all of the children had powers that could break through those tests. Almost as if those in control had put them through a sieve aligned to their own tastes, only the Military Oil espers survived.

The surviving Military Oil girls felt nothing but pure fear for those in control who had thrown them into that hell, but they also managed to retain a stable mentality by realizing they had special value for surviving. They had special powers. That had been why they had survived no matter what circumstances they had been put in. In Academy City, the strength of one’s powers determines everything, so they did not feel they had been wrong to abandon their other comrades. Those in control felt no need to correct this thought process because it was actually quite convenient for them. At that stage, those in control began calling the Military Oil espers “beasts”.

This term was a simple way of expressing what their characteristics had become. A ferocious power had awoken inside them, yet they never thought of turning that power on those in control who were “raising” them. Their powers only had value in being beneficial for those in control and attacking those in control for the sake of freedom was taboo. In that way, the girls drove themselves into a corner without even having to be taught these things, even while they could have easily rebelled against the powerless people in charge. Apparently, a few of the discovered Military Oil espers had even lost all ability to speak human language, and in the twisted context of the experiment those girls were the role models considered to be an example for the others.

Originally the project managed to gather a platoon of about 50 Military Oil espers, who all received anti-Level 5 training. The ideal situation was to wear down a single Level 5 as a group and kill them using a special team attack known as the Multiphase Straight Hammer. Another characteristic of White Alligator was their use of sewer routes to move through Academy City undetected.

End of White Alligator
At some point, for reasons unknown, this experiment was shut down and Aizono Mio ended up losing her humanity. As for the scandals and incidents afterwards, like the Exposure of Crystallized Esper Essence on Child Errors Experiment, the higher ups of Academy City quickly covered them up. By the time the project collapsed, about half of the original Military Oil espers were left.

Known Test Subjects of the White Alligator Project

 * Other unnamed Espers (mentioned to have become a Level 4 mass production program).

Trivia

 * Despite what is so far shown with Academy City's higher ups often being willing to invest great resources in high Level Esper production, this experiment was eventually terminated. This probably implies that they either hadn't enough funding, or that to the multiple Level 4's they created also suffered from severe mental damage due to the experiment thus would make the participants as uncontrollable as the Level 5s which was part of the purpose of the experiment they sought to avoid.
 * The project's name likely comes from urban legends about, some versions of which having albino alligators.