- "The Mysterons have the power of Retro-metabolism. They can reconstruct a person and use them for their own ends."
- —Captain Blue.
Retro-metabolism is the ability possessed by the Mysterons, who also call it "reversing matter". They are able to re-create an exact likeness of any object or person and have them under their control. However, they first have to destroy their chosen victims, whether these are objects or people.
The Mysterons first revealed this ability after Spectrum officer Captain Black made a mistaken, illegal, and unprovoked attack on a complex they owned on the planet Mars, which they reconstructed in a matter of seconds without a single sign of any previous damage.
Since then, they have destroyed and reconstructed various Earth people and objects to help in their vengeance against Earth. Captain Scarlet was one of those Earth people who was killed and reconstructed by the Mysterons. However after his likeness was killed, he was freed from the Mysterons' control and gained the Mysteron ability of his injuries healing without a trace, making him "virtually indestructible."