Vegapunk

Dr. Vegapunk is the leading scientist in the employment of the Marines. His work includes discovering the secrets and uses of seastone, the secrets of how Devil Fruit powers work, the co-discovery of the Lineage Factor and its applications, and various other scientific achievements that are said to be at least 500 years ahead of current technology. He hails from the technologically advanced Karakuri Island.

Before being employed under the World Government, Vegapunk was part of an outlaw scientific research team known as MADS, where he worked alongside other notable scientists such as Caesar Clown, Vinsmoke Judge and Queen before subsequent arrest and inevitable integration into the Marines after their dissolution. He is now the head of the SSG.

Appearance
Vegapunk has yet to make an appearance, but a G-5 Marine stated that he is an "old man", suggesting he is at an elderly age; Robin has backed this up by noting Vegapunk's many decades of work should have him looking much older than Lilith did. Also, during Kuma's explanation on his Pacifista modification, he seems to wear yellow gloves and a striped shirt while wearing a lab coat.

Personality
In his youth, Vegapunk was a generous person who cared very much for the inhabitants of his island, willing to help them with his inventions. He is considered the island's pride and joy, and the residents are still hoping for his return.

Each of Vegapunk's six satellites possess a dominant personality trait that is presumably present in Vegapunk in general. While he has morals and a sense of justice and pride as a scientist (Shaka), he also possesses malevolent traits and an inclination to steal from others in order to fund his research (Lilith) and can be prone to greed (York); there is considerable conflict and reasoning between these two sides. He appears to be quite thoughtful and wise (Edison and Pythagoras), but can be prone to getting angry at other people's inability to properly replicate and utilize his technological developments, to the point of lashing out violently (Atlas).

Unlike his former fellow scientist Caesar Clown, Vegapunk was far more moral about what he would do in pursuit of achievements. He refused to involve children in the gigantification process despite repeated failures. He also vetoed the creation or release of the H2S poison gas weapon for fear of it harming innocent people.

He seems to have an interest for dragons, as he created two of them on Punk Hazard, and an artificial Devil Fruit that allows the user to transform into one.

He appears to be honorable as he granted Kuma his final wish as a human being, which was to program Kuma to protect the Thousand Sunny until the Straw Hats return.

Satellite Personalities
At some point in the past, Vegapunk managed to split his being into six different people due to being occupied with his inventions. These six people, referred to as "satellites", all identify as Dr. Vegapunk and will introduce themselves as such, but also possess their own names and number designations to distinguish them. The satellites are also distinguished by appearing to embody a particular aspect of Vegapunk's personality.


 * Punk-01 "Shaka", embodying his "good".
 * Punk-02 "Lilith", embodying his "evil".
 * Punk-03 "Edison", embodying his "thinking".
 * Punk-04 "Pythagoras", embodying his "wisdom".
 * Punk-05 "Atlas", embodying his "violence".
 * Punk-06 "York", embodying his "greed".

Vegapunk's true body is called the "Stella". It is currently unclear whether the Stella is active alongside the six satellites.

World Government
Vegapunk was once arrested by the World Government for his dangerous experiments in relation to research conducted into the Lineage Factor and cloning. Despite this run in with the bureaucracy, he was employed as their chief scientist in the Marines.

Despite being of great help in drastically increasing the Marines' military might with his inventions of the Pacifista and Seraphim, among presumably other things, the World Government has elected to kill him, which CP0 is currently on a mission to do, due to the fear he might perceive too much about the truth.

Sentomaru
Vegapunk had a bodyguard named Sentomaru, who after the timeskip became a marine officer. Any relationship between the two has yet to be shown in detail.

Fujitora
Vegapunk seems to be amicable to the newly promoted Admiral. He revealed a new invention to Fujitora that could lead to the abolishment of the Seven Warlords of the Sea system.

Caesar Clown
Despite once being colleagues, Vegapunk and Caesar Clown had a bitter rivalry based on levels of recognition and ethics. When Caesar's erratic behavior got out of hand, Vegapunk decided to dismiss Caesar from his position. Caesar was also considered second best to Vegapunk. Because of this, Caesar holds a grudge against him.

Bartholomew Kuma
Vegapunk seems to have a good enough relationship with Bartholomew Kuma to grant him his final wish as a human being, which was to program Kuma to protect the Thousand Sunny until the Straw Hats return. It is very likely that Vegapunk highly respects Kuma's strength, as he modified Kuma to be the prototype Pacifista, and let Kuma have one final act as a human before becoming a mindless weapon.

Straw Hat Pirates
Vegapunk seems to have an interest in the Straw Hat Pirates. While his interest in the group is currently unknown, he saw no issue with granting Bartholomew Kuma his final wish as a human to protect the group's ship, the Thousand Sunny, until a member of the crew returned for it. He fulfilled Kuma's last wish and programmed him to protect the ship for two entire years, despite his long established history and connection to the Marines and to the World Government as a whole. One of his "satellites", Shaka even expressed an interest in meeting them after they appeared on the island of Egghead.

Abilities and Powers
While it is unclear when Vegapunk started using his satellites to split his work load, he himself is famed as the greatest scientific genius the world has ever known, having tremendous knowledge and unmatched understanding in all fields of science, from cell biology to military technology, at the beginning of his work on Karakuri Island as noted by Franky. His scientific expertise is said to be at least 500 years ahead of his contemporaries. It seems that even in his youth, the scientist was a prodigy already considered a genius, but lacked the skills, funds, and materials to develop his inventions, although that did not stop him from theorizing the creation of Pacifista cyborgs, including their laser weapons back then. This is proven by the fact that Franky was able to recreate the technologies by self studying the blueprints Vegapunk left behind on his home island. Regardless, the creations and blueprints that he has left behind are considered invaluable, and any damage inflicted to them is considered a crime.

He also discovered exactly how Devil Fruit powers are transferred over to a user, and was the scientist behind the method of adding Devil Fruit powers to inanimate objects, such as swords and guns.

He is the one who modified Bartholomew Kuma into a cyborg, and has produced many Pacifista replicas of him, granting them some of the abilities of Kizaru's Devil Fruit in the process. These replicas bleed actual blood. However, they lack Kuma's own Devil Fruit abilities. After the two-year timeskip, Sentomaru revealed that the latest Pacifista had been further modified; these were later revealed to be the Seraphim, replicas of the Seven Warlords of the Sea in their youth but with Lunarian traits. The lasers that are installed into the Pacifista were apparently supposed to be so advanced, that only Vegapunk knew how to create them. It was also stated that the dragons found on Punk Hazard were of Vegapunk's own creation.

He also seems to be physically strong, as he was able to survive Caesar Clown's mass murder weapon at its core explosion.

Through their research, he discovered ways of allowing Marine ships to pass through the Calm Belts without fear of a Sea King attack, by covering the bottom of the ships with Seastone.

Satellites
Due to splitting himself up into six people, Vegapunk is now able to be many times more productive as his satellites are capable of working independently at the same time. The fact that each of his satellites can also be equipped with weapons, vehicles, and technology also makes Vegapunk drastically more difficult to handle in combat. The satellites are capable of communicating with each other via an earpiece, and may also share senses as Shaka was able to see what was around Lilith while the two of them were in different locations.

Scientific Achievements
The following is a list of the researches done under the name Vegapunk, and it is unknown for some of them whether it was Vegapunk himself or one of the satellites that is responsible for them.

Early Life
Vegapunk was born in the Future Country Baldimore on Karakuri Island. As a child, he designed and built several devices in his lab, including robotic animals. He also had hundreds of other ideas, ranging from weapons to experimenting with cellular structures. He once tried to create an in-ground heating system for the island's people using modified animals as his labor force. Unfortunately, Vegapunk lacked the tools and the funds needed to complete his project, but he was able to touch the people's hearts.

At some point, he worked alongside Vinsmoke Judge within MADS, an illegal research team, and discovered the blueprint of life known as the Lineage Factor. When the World Government caught wind of this, they deemed the research a threat, and Vegapunk was arrested.

Service to the World Government
After going to work for the World Government, he became famous for his Devil Fruit research and for discovering that Seastone can serve to counteract the effects of Devil Fruits on the user.

Around 33 years ago, when Kaidou was captured by the Marines, Vegapunk was able to extract a sample of his Lineage Factor to replicate his Devil Fruit, although the results were noted to be unsatisfactory. The World Government wanted him to give the fruit to them, but Vegapunk considered it a failure and refused, leaving it on Punk Hazard. Sometime later, Kaidou escaped Vegapunk's facility together with King, who was also captured.



Four years prior to the current storyline, he was leading chemical weapons tests in his lab on Punk Hazard. His former colleague, Caesar Clown, created an extremely powerful chemical weapon, and when Vegapunk attempted to dismiss Caesar for his reckless behavior, Caesar retaliated by detonating that weapon, turning Punk Hazard into a wasteland. The island was closed off after this incident and a dragon that Vegapunk created was also abandoned. Since Vegapunk had been leading the experiments, he was blamed for the incident.

Before the timeskip, he focused on developing human weapons called Pacifista, with Bartholomew Kuma as the test subject and with his research on Kizaru's Devil Fruit powers. He somehow managed to synthesize them and become the only person in the world with the technological prowess to manufacture functional and tangible laser beams that cause damage, which the World Government now use in full force and mass production. Prior to the Summit War of Marineford, Vegapunk performed the final operation on Kuma, removing the last of Kuma's free will. However, upon Kuma's request, Vegapunk programmed the mission to protect the Thousand Sunny into Kuma's memory banks.

Prior to going to Mary Geoise, Issho met with Vegapunk and the scientist revealed an invention that Issho believed could render the Seven Warlords of the Sea system obsolete.

Translation and Dub Issues
In the original Japanese, the names of Vegapunk's satellites are written with kanji which have meanings that correspond with the aspects they embody. For example, Lilith's name is written as, with a kanji character that means "evil" while the furigana gives the reading Ririsu or "Lilith". In the VIZ translation, these meanings are presented similarly to epithets, such as "Lilith the Evil" and "Shaka the Good".

Trivia

 * The reason Vegapunk's satellites are referred to using the kanji for "cat" is because Kaku uses the Japanese idiom "Neko no te mo kari tai" (猫の手も借りたい) which literally means "I would want to borrow even a hand of a cat" and is commonly used to express that one is extremely busy.

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