MADS

MADS, also known as the Laboratory for Peace (平和研究所), was an illegal scientific research institute led by Vegapunk, that was active at least over 24 years ago.

There is currently an attempt to revive the group through NEO MADS, which is under the command of former MADS members Vinsmoke Judge and Caesar Clown.

Overview
The MADS laboratory took the form of a large paddle steamer sailing the seas and presented itself as a "research lab for peace". It used a white flag with the word "PACIFIST" written on it. The hull featured the name "MADS" and the phrase "Presented by LU FELD".

Despite the institute's stated goal of peace, three of its leading members—Queen, Judge, and Caesar—were in fact developing weapons of mass destruction, while its director, Vegapunk, was the only one inventing peace-promoting products. One of MADS's most notable accomplishments includes the discovery of the Lineage Factor, also known as the "blueprints of life itself". This made it possible for them to clone human beings, with the first successful attempt resulting in Stussy.

They were notable enough that the World Government felt threatened by their existence, leading to their persecution and eventual disbandment.

Members
There were five significant members of MADS: Dr. Vegapunk, currently considered the world's greatest scientist and head of the Marines' SSG; Caesar Clown, the man behind the creation of SMILEs; Vinsmoke Judge, the patriarch of the Vinsmoke Family, supreme commander of Germa 66 and king of Germa Kingdom; Queen, a cyborg and one of the Beasts Pirates' All-Stars, top executives handpicked by the Emperor Kaidou to lead his forces; and Buckingham Stussy, a self-styled scientist and freeloader of the group, who was not only a former member of the legendary Rocks Pirates, but also the mother of the ex-warlord Edward Weevil and the genetic template for MADS' first successful clone, Stussy. Aside from these five, a number of other scientists or assistants were a part of the group.

Excluding the freeloader Stussy, all of the known members have been proven to be brilliant researchers in their own right, holding high status in the organizations they currently belong to and being responsible for various scientific breakthroughs, including cybernetics, artificial Devil Fruits, gigantification, cloning, and artificial diseases.

The MADS research was financed by Du Feld, the Loan Shark King of the Underworld.

Past


According to Vinsmoke Yonji, MADS had been active before the Vinsmoke children were born. Dr. Vegapunk, Caesar Clown and Judge worked together in the development of weapons. Queen was also a member, being familiar enough with Judge's children and confirming his prior membership to one of them himself. Buckingham Stussy was also involved, but contributed little to nothing into the research, being labelled as a "freeloader". She did, however, provide the genetics to create Stussy, the first artificial life-form created by MADS. The members of MADS worked in their own research vessel provided by underworld bigshot, Du Feld.

While Vegapunk focused on creating inventions in the pursuit of peace, Caesar, Judge and Queen invested their time on creating weapons of mass destruction and carnage. However, the world was far more interested in Vegapunk's creations, such as an artificial breed of flower that can grow in gunpowder, thus rendering tanks and other weapons useless, much to the frustration of his co-workers. The three evil men then began fighting over who should be the second-best scientist in the organization, while Vegapunk was granted an audience with the Five Elders.

At some point, because some of their subjects of study were considered taboo by the World Government, the research team was recognized as illegal, with its members being branded as criminals. Feeling threatened by Vegapunk's discoveries and experiments, especially those tied to Lineage Factor, the government's higher-ups ordered his arrest, thus causing MADS to be dissolved.

Legacy
Despite having being disbanded, MADS' legacy played many significant roles in the future; especially in the second half of the series.

After being recruited by the World Government, Vegapunk and Caesar continued their research under the government's supervision, and were given their own research facility on Punk Hazard. Vegapunk's research delved into the effect that Devil Fruits had on the Lineage Factor of their consumers, and culminated in him using the Lineage Factor of Kaidou to form an artificial replica of the pirate's fruit, the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu. This research also led to the development of Green Blood, a synthetic blood that enabled the Seraphim to mimic Paramecia abilities. Caesar also continued creating weapons of mass destruction, but after he refused orders from the higher ups to discontinue his studies, Vegapunk ordered his arrest. In an act of spite, Caesar launched a powerful poison gas that devastated the entire island, thus causing it to become nearly uninhabitable. After escaping from imprisonment a year later, Caesar returned to the island and, with protection from the warlord, Donquixote Doflamingo and the emperor, Kaidou, was able to resume his work in secret by developing his own artificial Devil Fruits called SMILES, which are then distributed to the members of Kaidou's crew. This conspiracy ended, however, when the Straw Hat Pirates along with Trafalgar Law captured Caesar from Punk Hazard and defeated Doflamingo at Dressrosa.

The discovery of the Lineage Factor enabled the members of MADS to perform further research into it regardless of the team's disbandment, with Judge and Vegapunk having the largest known breakthroughs. Judge utilized the Lineage Factor to successfully clone humans and create clone soldiers for his kingdom, whose growth is accelerated to reach maturity in only five years. Additionally, Judge successfully modified the bodies of his children; Reiju, Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji, which turned them into superhuman soldiers. His third son, Sanji, initially seemed to not gain the genetic enhancements, but later gained them after utilizing a Raid Suit multiple times. Vegapunk also used the research to create seven "satellites" that would aid him in his research on Egghead.

The other members, Queen and Buckingham Stussy, went on their own paths as well. Queen joined the Beasts Pirates, becoming one of Kaidou's top henchmen known as the All-Stars alongside King and Jack. Using his incredible genius, he transformed himself into a powerful cyborg, with his cybernetics aligning with his own Devil Fruit ability, and even gave himself powers similar to those of Judge's modified children. Buckingham Stussy, on the other hand, mothered a child named Edward Weevil, who she claimed to be the only legitimate son of Whitebeard himself and became one of the Seven Warlords before its disbandment. Together, they began hunting down the remnant's of her supposed lover's crew in order to claim his fortune. One of the group's creations, Stussy, later went on to join CP0 as an undercover agent loyal only to Vegapunk. She served the organization for a time until finally betraying them under Vegapunk's orders.

Both Caesar and Judge ended up dealing with the emperor, Big Mom as well. With funds provided by her, Caesar performed experiments to perfect the process of creating giant soldiers, but also squandered most of them on his own frivolous pleasures. When he was brought to Totto Land to provide results of his work, he was then forced to continue his research under the threat of death. Judge, on the other hand, wished to form an alliance with Big Mom's crew so that his kingdom could reconquer the North Blue by having his estranged son, Sanji marry Big Mom's daughter, Pudding. However, Big Mom and the rest of her family planned to betray and murder the Vinsmokes so that they could acquire the Germa's technology for themselves. But thanks the Straw Hats, both Caesar and the Vinsmokes eventually escaped from Totto Land, and after meeting up again afterwards, Caesar and Judge formed a new organization called NEO MADS as a successor to the original MADS.

Trivia

 * "MADS" could be a reference to "mad scientist", a common term used in fiction to describe scientist characters who partake in unethical experiments.
 * The way in which some members of the "MADS", such as Vegapunk and Caesar Clown, were conscripted into the World Government is similar to Operation Paperclip, in which the United States government conscripted German scientists after World War II.

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