Leader: Erudite
Roster:
- Basilisk (apprehended; sentenced to Pandora)
- Candyman (at large)
- Confectionery (apprehended; sentenced to Pandora)
- Entier (apparently destroyed)
- Erudite (apprehended; sentenced to Pandora)
- Felsic (apprehended; remanded to the custody of the New Vindicators Academy of Europe)
- Lacuna (Lacuna Prime: killed; at large)
- Lioness (killed)
- Manticore (apprehended; remanded to the custody of the New Vindicators Academy of Europe)
- Niloticus
- Rheid (apprehended; remanded to the custody of the New Vindicators Academy of Europe)
- Tallemaja (at large)
- Tantivy (apprehended; remanded to the custody of the New Vindicators Academy of Europe)
- Therianthrope (apprehended; sentenced to Pandora)
- Vociferant (apprehended; sentenced to Pandora)
- Zehirli (apprehended; sentenced to Pandora)
Base of Operations: An island in the Mediterranean, possibly the Adriatic or Aegean Sea; according to Erudite, the engines absconded during the Kaiserslautern Event are being employed in making the island mobile.
First Appearance: New Vindicators Academy of Europe #2
Significant Appearances: New Vindicators Academy of Europe #6 (
Vlad's arrival), New Vindicators Academy of Europe #8 (
Therianthrope's confession), New Vindicators Academy of Europe #10 (Final Battle), New Vindicators Academy of Europe #16 (Tallemaja revealed), New Vindicators Academy of Europe #17 (Tallemaja vs. Siegfried), Tabula Rasa #25 (The Catherine)
Goals: According to Erudite, the goals of Laputa are to overthrow the United States of America as well as any other nation that would oppress Neo-Sapiens. Then, using her intellect, she strives to usher in a utopia that will guide mankind--humans and Neo-Sapiens together--into an era of prosperity. Ultimately, this was revealed to be misdirection: in reality, Lacuna was Elizabeth Lamperouge, who blamed her brother
Jason (Prodigy) for splitting up their family. Laputa was nothing more than a weapon she wielded in her crusade against him and any happiness he may have found in life.
Crimes: On September 9, 2008, two members of Laputa (Basilisk and Confectionery) abducted the parents of
Emily Adler (Catalyst) and used them to coerce the young woman to mind control Captain Nelson into creating a hostage situation in Kaiserslautern, Germany's townhall. These events are currently believed to have been a means for distracting the Bundeswehr, Germany's Federal Defense Force, while Therianthrope attacked the nearby Ramstein Air Base.
Then, on September 27, 2008, Herta Radikovich, the adopted sister of a student (Vladislav Radikovich, Candyman) at the New Vindicators Academy of Europe unexpectedly arrived on campus. After finding her brother in the school's sublevels, she revealed the tattoo of a black pawn on her left shoulder and exposed herself as a member of Laputa. She then used a wireless detonator to activate a bomb planted in one of the many buildings composing the United Nations offices that flanked the institute. This explosion was shown to trigger the activation of Lacuna's personality within another guest of the school: Gabrielle "Elle" Curie (younger sister of student
Martin Curie).
In the ensuing chaos, the possessed girl made her way to the sublevels where she liberated Basilisk, who had been captured two weeks prior during the K-Town Incident. In their flight from the school, one of the students (
Alina Amânar) pursued them in the air. She was ambushed by Therianthrope, who effortlessly ended her life miles above the Earth's surface.
On October 13, 2008, Lacuna took control over
Matt Meyers, a student at the New Vindicators Academy of Europe, and opened fire on a classroom, injuring two classmates (
Juozas Cahan and
Fiore Caspian) and one teacher (
Iulia Catargi) before being brought down.
The following day, Nadja Nelson, a secretary at the school, was found murdered. While the suspects were initially Tevfik and Lexus Rauf, several of Laputa's agents involved themselves in the investigation: Entier was observed manipulating the body in the sublevel's infirmary while Felsic, Tantivy and Therianthrope were observed searching Vienna for a student at the school,
Beatrice Marceau. Though the pawns fled, Therianthrope fought a handful of the students and was successfully brought to justice.
Operation: Aeneid
Therianthrope turned out to be a Trojan horse, however: one of Lacuna's seeds was inside the man and set to bloom with the conditional trigger of entering Pandora. There, Lacuna would mentally take over both the guards and the inmates of the secret prison and expose its location to the other members of Laputa. Entier, Confectionery, Zehirli and Lioness (as well as their respective pawns) were assigned as an advance party whose task would be to rendezvous with the infected prison for yet unknown reasons. This plot was exposed by
Cornelis Noteboom, carrying a message from Candyman, as well as deduced by Martin Curie following a conversation with his mother. Therianthrope was steered away from Pandora, ensuring that Operation: Aeneid would be a failure.
The Invasion
With the failure of Operation: Aeneid, Laputa moved their time table up significantly. On October 24, 2008, their island appeared in the skies over Vienna. Ultimately, the Vindicators and the New Vindicators both invaded the island. Though they were split up, they began to take down one member of the organization after the other before finally disabling the island's controls. Once evacuated,
Magnitude and
Quintessence moved it to a remote location in the Alps. However, during the conflict, two students of the New Vindicators Academy of Europe lost their lives:
Warder (Dag Schenkenberg) and Apex (Cornelis Noteboom).
Organization: Laputa is composed of sixteen members who operate as eight two-man teams under the direction of one individual. Each member represents a chess piece, with a pawn assigned to every major piece. As demonstrated by Tantivy and Lacuna, each member is marked by a tattoo that depicts their rank within the group.
- King's Rook: Confectionery / Pawn: Basilisk
- King's Knight: Vociferant (tattoo: sole of right foot) / Pawn: Rheid (tattoo: right arm interior)
- King's Bishop: Lioness / Pawn: Candyman
- King: Therianthrope / Pawn: Tantivy (tattoo: left shoulder)
- Queen: Erudite / Pawn: Tallemaja
- Queen's Bishop: Zehirli / Pawn: Manticore
- Queen's Knight: Entier / Pawn: Felsic
- Queen's Rook: Lacuna (tattoo: tongue) / Pawn: Niloticus (tattoo: belly)
Hostages: During his confession, Therianthrope revealed to his son that it was the bishops' were given the task of abducting "low-threat individuals of significant importance to the Vindicators and their allies." It was Laputa's hope that their presence, scattered about the island, would discourage their enemies from attacking the island, out of fear that a loved one might be harmed.
Each one was kept under house arrest and bares an abdomen scar where a explosive device was surgically installed; straying too far from their respective cottage would result in its detonation.
During the invasion of Laputa, Tallemaja twice took on the appearance of friends and family of the heroes: once, adopting the identity of Vicente DeGallow (Impasse's older brother), and later Gundrun Flaegler (Magnitude's little sister). Neither was ever shown to actually be on the island.
- Albert Adler (Catalyst's father)
- Franziska Adler (Catalyst's mother)
- Charles Lamperouge (Prodigy's father; under the care of Erudite and Tallemaja)
- Elizabeth Lamperouge (Prodigy's sister)
- Gabrielle Curie (Fluxx's sister; under the care of Entier and Felsic)
- Molly O'Laughlin (Fey's cousin; under the care of Lioness and Candyman)
- Lillian Murphy (Current's mother; under the care of Zehirli and Manticore)
Notes: Laputa is a fictional location in Jonathon Swift's "Gulliver's Travels." In the book, it is an island that flies via magnetism and is home to educated individuals who fail to make practical use of their advanced technology. "La puta" is also Spanish for "the whore."