Project Cerberus

There is a small group of buildings on the outskirts of San Diego which is home to the Donning Institute.  This secretive, privately funded medical facility purports to be carrying out research into neurological problems, but an astute observer might note that the level of security seems unusually excessive.  The truth behind this bright, airy complex is as hellish as any the Parallax Club have ever encountered.

Penny was escaping from the Donning Institute when she was first found by the Club.  It is home to some of the most ruthless and amoral scientists on the planet, engaged in the study and development of parapsychology and psychic phenomena, especially in children.  Penny has no memory of how she came to be at the Institute, but what is known is that she was 'Lot One' of an experiment that involved the stimulation of neural and psychic activity in children through injections of a brain-altering chemical called Synaptine.  An experiment called Project Cerberus.

It is believed that the other 'Lots' in Project Cerberus perished, but Penny found her burgeoning psychic powers massively increased in potency.  It was all too bad for the scientists involved, but since then agents of Project Cerberus and the Institute have tried to retrieve Penny on numerous occasions.  Not only do they wish to study her phenomenal mind, but it is believed that the secret of Synaptine died with the Institute's founder during Penny's escape. 

The exact chemical makeup of Synaptine remains elusive despite the best efforts of both the Institute and the Parallax Club.  What is known is that it stimulates the chemical signals, the synapses, that transfer the electrical signals from one neurone to another in the human brain.  The synaptic response speed of a normal brain is 2,200 mph, but with Synaptine this is multiplied a thousandfold.  The chemical thus opens up access to the 83% of the brain that is unused by the majority of humanity.

It is unknown who exactly is behind Project Cerberus.  It could be governmental, or another McAllister scheme, or even something else.  Whoever they are, they have access to vast resources and some highly-trained paramilitary retrieval teams.  The Institute has lost a number of these teams and its research staff through their tangles with the Parallax Club, but there seems to be a never-ending supply of goons, amoral doctors and uncaring scientists willing to work on their inhuman projects.

Recently, Penny has begun to display a vastly increased level of intellectual development even as her psychic powers continue to grow.  Tests by Becky Martin have shown that the young girl's pituitary gland has been genetically altered, presumably by the original experiment, and is now producing small levels of Synaptine on its own.  This is undoubtedly the cause of Penny's increased neurological activity, but it also poses a number of disturbing questions about her future.