Punk Hazard.
It had once been a beautiful Island, known for its mild climate. Spring seemed to last all year, and bitter cold or scorching heat was rare.
Six years earlier, the Marines had moved onto the Island. Its gentle climate and the vast forests surrounding it had led the World Government's leaders to turn it into a secret Laboratory Base.
Four years earlier, a Scientist named Caesar Clown had caused an experimental accident on the Island. Poison gas spread across it, killing or injuring large numbers of the death-row prisoners used in the experiments. Only a few survived, and the gas damaged their nervous systems, leaving every survivor paralyzed from the waist down.
The Marines stationed on the Island suffered terrible losses as well. They had been there to protect the Scientists, but the accident killed even more Marines than prisoners.
The World Government covered up the scandal at once and arrested Caesar Clown. Yet Caesar was an exceptional Scientist. His mastery of poison-gas bombs even surpassed Vegapunk's, so the World Government announced that it had imprisoned him while secretly keeping him under house arrest to continue his research.
Three years earlier, a lapse by his guards had allowed Caesar Clown to get the key to the Seastone shackles around his neck. He then escaped using the power of his Gas-Gas Fruit and vanished from the World Government's sight.
Once he had escaped, Caesar Clown did not abandon the work he had spent so long on. Outsiders believed the earlier accident had resulted from a failed experiment, but Caesar knew he had succeeded.
It had not been a complete success, but he had created a prototype of the weapon he envisioned: Dead Nation.
Caesar secretly returned to Punk Hazard. With a clumsy lie, he won the trust of the