• Punk Hazard's Sleep Experiment •

In Punk Hazard, a researchers team kept five people awake for fifteen days using an experimental gas based stimulant called the M5 Gas. They were kept in a sealed environment to carefully monitor their oxygen intake so the gas didn't kill them, since it was toxic in high concentrations. The chamber was stocked with books, cots to sleep on but no bedding, running water and toilet, and enough dried food to last all five for over a month.

The test subjects were pirate prisoners deemed enemies of the World Government during the Marineford War.

They are;

"Bohemian Knight" Doma.

"Thunder Lord" McGuy.

Decalvan Brothers.

"Maelstrom Spider" Squard.

Everything was fine for the first five days; the subjects hardly complained having been promised (falsely) that they would be freed if they submitted to the test and did not sleep for 30 days.

Their conversations and activities were monitored by Den Den Mushis in the room and it was noted that they continued to talk about increasingly traumatic incidents in their pirate career, and the general tone of their conversations took on a darker aspect after the four day mark.

After five days they started to complain about the circumstances and events that lead them to where they were and started to demonstrate severe paranoia. They stopped talking to each other and began alternately whispering to the moderating Den Den Mushis in the room. Oddly they all seemed to think they could win the trust of the Punk Hazard experimenters by turning over one of them. At first the researchers suspected this was an effect of the M5 Gas itself...

After nine days the first of them started screaming. The Decalvan Brothers ran full length of the chamber repeatedly yelling at the top of their lungs for three hours straight, they continued attempting to scream but was only able to produce occasional squeaks. The researchers postulated that they had physically torn each others vocal cords. The most surprising thing about their behavior is how the other captives reacted to it... or rather didn't react to it. They continued whispering to the Den Den Mushi until abother captive McGuy started to scream. The three non-screaming captives took the books apart, smeared page after page with their own blood, by scratching their arms and pasted them calmly over the walls. Eventually the screaming promptly stopped.

So did the whispering to the Den Den Mushis.

After three more days passed. The researchers checked the Den Den Mushis hourly to make sure they were working, since they thought it impossible that no sound could be coming with five people inside. The oxygen consumption in the chamber indicated that all five must still be alive. In fact it was the amount of oxygen five people would consume at a very heavy level of strenuous exercise. On the morning of the 14th day the researchers did something they said they would not do to get a reaction from the captives, they used the intercom inside the chamber, hoping to provoke any response from the captives they were afraid were either dead or unresponsive.

They announced: "We are opening the chamber to check on the Den Den Mushis; step away from the door and lie flat on the floor or you will be shot by the escorting Marines. If you all compliance, you'll be will be earn by given immediate freedom."

To their surprise they heard a single phrase in a calm voice response: "We no longer want to be freed."

Debate broke out among the researchers and the Marine forces funding the research. Unable to provoke any more response using the intercom it was finally decided to open the chamber at midnight on the fifteenth day.

The chamber was flushed of the stimulant M5 Gas and filled with fresh air and immediately voices from the microphones began to object. 3 different voices began begging, as if pleading for the life of loved ones to turn the gas back on. The chamber was opened and the Marine soldiers sent in to retrieve the test subjects. They began to scream louder than ever, and so did the Marines when they saw what was inside. Eventually one of the Decalvan Brothers died, leaving only four subjects alive, although no one could rightly call the state that any of them are in 'alive.'

The food rations past day five had not been so much as touched. There were chunks of meat from one of the dead Decalvan Brothers, thighs and chest stuffed into the drain in the center of the chamber, blocking the drain and allowing four inches of water to accumulate on the floor. Precisely how much of the water on the floor was actually blood was never determined. All four 'surviving' test subjects also had large portions of muscle and skin torn away from their bodies. The destruction of flesh and exposed bone on their finger tips indicated that the wounds were inflicted by hand, not with teeth as the researchers initially thought. Closer examination of the position and angles of the wounds indicated that most if not all of them were self-inflicted.

The abdominal organs below the ribcage of all four test subjects had been removed. While the heart, lungs and diaphragm remained in place, the skin and most of the muscles attached to the ribs had been ripped off, exposing the lungs through the ribcage. All the blood vessels and organs remained intact, they had just been taken out and laid on the floor, fanning out around the eviscerated but still living bodies of the subjects. The digestive tract of all four could be seen to be working, digesting food. It quickly became apparent that what they were digesting was their own flesh that they had ripped off and eaten over the course of days.

Most of the Marines were a special operative group at Punk Hazard facility, but still many refused to return to the chamber to remove the test subjects. They continued to scream to be left in the chamber and alternately begged and demanded that the gas be turned back on, lest they fall asleep...

To everyone's surprise the test subjects put up a fierce fight in the process of being removed from the chamber. One of the Marines soldiers died from having his throat ripped out by McGuy, another was gravely injured by Doma, and one Marine Soldier had his testicles ripped off by Squard, and an artery in his leg severed by the remaining Decalvan Brother's sharp teeth. Another 5 of the soldiers lost their lives if you count ones that committed suicide in the weeks following the incident.

In the struggle one of the four living subjects, McGuy, had his spleen ruptured and he bled out almost immediately. The medical researchers attempted to sedate him but this proved impossible. He was injected with more than ten times the human dose of a morphine derivative and still fought like a cornered animal, breaking the ribs and arm of three Marines and one doctor. Eventually McGuy continued to scream and flail for another three minutes, struggling to attack anyone in reach and just repeating the word "MORE" over and over, weaker and weaker, until he finally fell silent, his heart has stopped.

Afterwards the researchers did an autopsy on McGuy, it was found that his blood had triple the normal level of oxygen. His muscles that were still attached to his skeleton were badly torn and he had broken 9 bones in his struggle to not be subdued. Most of them were from the force were his own muscles had exerted on them.

The surviving test subjects were heavily restrained and moved to a medical facility, the two with intact vocal cords continuously begging for the M5 Gas demanding to be kept awake...

The most injured of the three, Doma, was taken to the only surgical operating room that the facility had. In the process of preparing the subject to have his organs placed back within his body it was found that he was effectively immune to the sedative they had given him to prepare him for the surgery. Doma fought furiously against his restraints when the anesthetic M5 Gas was brought out to put him under. He managed to tear most of the way through a four inch wide leather strap on one wrist, even through the weight of a 200 pound soldier holding that wrist as well. It took only a little more anesthetic than normal to put him under, and the instant his eyelids fluttered and closed repeatedly.

The second survivor, the remaining Decalvan Brother had been the first of the group of five to start screaming. His vocal cords were destroyed, and he was unable to beg or object to surgery, and his only reaction is by shaking his head violently in disapproval when the anesthetic M5 Gas was brought near him. He shook his head yes when someone suggested, reluctantly, they try the surgery without anesthetic, and did not react for the entire six hour procedure of replacing his abdominal organs and attempting to cover them with what remained of his skin. The surgeon presiding stated repeatedly that it should be medically possible for the patient to still be alive. One terrified nurse assisting the surgery stated that she had seen the patients mouth curl into a smile several times, whenever his eyes met hers.

When the surgery ended the Decalvan Brother looked at the surgeon and began to wheeze loudly, attempting to talk while struggling. Assuming this must be something of drastic importance the surgeon had a pen and pad fetched so the patient could write his message. It was simple. "Keep cutting."

The last test subject, Squard was given the same surgery, both without anesthetic as well. Although he had to be injected with a paralytic for the duration of the operation. The surgeon found it impossible to perform the operation while Sqaurd is laughing continuously. Once paralyzed Squard could only follow the attending researchers with their eyes. The paralytic cleared their system in an abnormally short period of time and they were soon trying to escape their bonds. The moment they could speak they were again asking for the stimulant gas. The researchers tried asking why they had injured themselves, why they had ripped out their own guts and why they wanted to be given the gas again.

Only one response was given: "I must remain awake."

All three subject's restraints were reinforced and they were placed back into the chamber awaiting determination as to what should be done with them. The researchers, facing the wrath of the World Government military 'benefactors' for having failed the stated goals of their project considered euthanizing the surviving subjects. The commanding officer, an ex-knight of Mary Geoise, instead saw potential, and wanted to see what would happen if they were put back on the M5 Gas. The Punk Hazard researchers strongly objected, but were overruled.

In preparation for being sealed in the chamber again the subjects were connected to an EEG monitor and had their restraints padded for long term confinement. To everyone's surprise all three stopped struggling the moment it was let slip that they were going back on the M5 Gas. It was obvious that at this point all three were putting up a great struggle to stay awake. Two of the subjects, Doma and the Decalvan Brother, could say was humming loudly and continuously; as they were straining their legs against the leather bonds with all their might, first left, then right, then left again for something to focus on. Then they starts holding their head off their own respected pillows and started blinking rapidly. Having been the first to be wired for EEG most of the researchers were monitoring their brain waves in surprise. They were normal most of the time but sometimes flat lined inexplicably. It looked as if they were repeatedly suffering brain death, before returning to normal. As they focused on paper scrolling out of the brainwave monitor only one nurse saw Doma and the Decalvan Brother's eyes slip shut at the same moment their heads hit their pillows. Their brainwaves immediately changed to that of deep sleep, then flatlined for the last time as their heart simultaneously stopped.

The only remaining subject, Squard started screaming to be sealed in now. His brainwaves showed the same flatlines as one who had just died from falling asleep. The commander gave the order to seal the chamber with Squard inside, along with the medical and research team. The leading punk hazard researcher immediately grabbed a gun, from the commander shot him point blank between the eyes, then turned the gun on his subordinates and blew their brains out as well.

He rushed into the chamber, and pointed his gun at Squard, still restrained to the bed as the remaining members of the medical and research team fled the room. "I won't be locked in here with these things! Not with you!" he screamed at the lead Punk Hazard researcher. "WHAT ARE YOU?" he demanded. "I must know!"

Squard then smiled.

"Have you forgotten so easily?" he asked. "We are you. We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be free at every moment in your deepest animal mind. We are what you hide from in your beds every night. We are what you sedate into silence and paralysis when you go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot tread."

The researcher paused. Then aimed at the Squard's heart and fired. The EEG flatlined as Squard weakly choked out, "So... nearly... free..."