Produced by Sorenson Pharmaceuticals, Hormone K is an experimental neuron-regenerating treatment designed for those with severe damage to their brains: stroke victims, recipients of traumatic injuries, persistent vegetative state patients and such. Initial tests showed it to be effective on animals, such as dogs and monkeys, and so the go-ahead was given to move to testing humans.
At this point, an unexpected side-effect of the drug was discovered. Animals do not possess large enough brains to trigger it, but humans do: it vastly increases intelligence, in every aspect, to a degree nothing short of superhuman. There were only ever seventy-two test subjects, all but two of whom were rounded up (along with all remaining stocks of Hormone K) by the CIA. The other two – the only ones to have received three doses of the drug, remain at large, their plans unfathomable to those of use with merely normal intelligence.