PuNk HaZaRd

[BigMeeshDavidHoover]

Punk Hazard is an island located in the second half of the Grand Line, called the New World that has been heavily modified away from its original geography. Not in a fashion that could be called enhancement, but rather a steady process of mutilation. Punk Hazard has certainly held a long history of this rampant abuse. Formerly, it served as a World Government research station, with various interconnected research facilities and a Marine base. During that time it was a lush, tropical haven with an immense mountain range. For whatever reason, the World Government decided that such a beautiful life filled place was excellent to use as a base for chemical weaponry research. Dr.Vegapunk was stationed here, along with several other big name scientists and their research teams. Pirates who were sent to Punk Hazard were used as lab rats for some of the most heinous of experiments.

Unbeknownst to most, it was here that Leto Choir had begun to conduct experiments on her special "eternal smog". It was an experiment with intentions no one could guess at, the details involving an "ever-lasting smart poison" that would only allow itself to be purified when everything within a certain radius of its deployment had died. Leto was deemed insane and far too reckless, and ultimately dismissed, but this is exactly what provoked her into setting off a bomb and releasing the cloud. Much of the plant-life died, as well as most of the inhabitants, but a number escaped, along with Leto who was later caught and imprisoned for her crimes. The cloud of poison loomed over Punk Hazard for years, ravaging the environment. The prisoners who were caught in the cloud didn't all die, neither did several animals that were also used for testing. It left some of them paralyzed from the waist down, and robbed others of various senses at random. Some creatures mutated in response to the poison and became much stronger individuals for it. The cloud was adapting, and had become torturous, changing the symptoms of its poison every now and again. Though the marine base, and research facilities were abandoned, they're still standing, and have Seastone equipment lying around.

But upon Leto's return to the island, she and her cohorts had taken it upon themselves to make some changes. With Contract Blue's intelligence, they altered the geography of the island, until most of the foliage was quite literally cotton candy that could reproduce. Rivers of root-beer flowed through every canal, and replaced different lakes and what not. The clouds over the western half of the island have been rendered a noticeably erratic cavalcade of colors and disarray, and they're quite capable of inducing a feeling of un-wellness or dizziness if observed for too long. There is also an abundance of ice cream shrubs and other confections here. The ice cream isn't something they want to melt, so it was made to be mostly self-sustaining until touched by a tongue and for that reason the ice cream scoops of various sizes radiate an intense cold. The eastern half of the island is where the rivers of rootbeer are more prominent, and things have been modified on that portion of the island so that most travel is done using the rivers, by riding gigantic vanilla wafers across the soda. There is a perpetual "fog" that drifts eerily along the ground in the western portion of the island. There are often complaints that it's hard to breathe here.

Furthermore, aside from the Four Guardians of Punk Hazard, most of the inhabitants have been altered in some way. Such as the prisoners who now work for Leto due to her absorbing and purifying the toxic cloud that once ravaged Punk Hazard, they have all been converted by her associate Contract Blue, into "Jelly-Men", meaning their bodies have obtained the properties of jell filled gummy-candies. This was done to counteract how some had become paraplegic due to the poison. So most of their bodies aren't entirely candy. Due to their sticky bodies though, they are convenient for capturing others, or being used as a quick snack.