The BANZAI INSTITUTE

HISTORY

Founded nearly two decades ago, the Banzai Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Strategic Information is an independent non-profit research institution based in New Jersey. Those accepted to the Institute were given the freedom to experiment and develop ideas without the burdens of having to report to faculty or corporate boards or having to spend time and energy trying to raise funds or apply for grants. By encouraging a spartan communal lifestyle on campus the Institute was able to foster cooperation among widely varying disciplines and keep costs down which, when combined with a small percentage paid from any patents developed by Institute members, enabled the Institute to be self-funded without requiring external financial contributions (and the outside influences that would accompany them).

At the heart of the Institute was its founder Dr. Buckaroo Banzai. Medical doctor, particle physicist, engineer, polyglot, rock star. Buckaroo Banzai was a modern day Renaissance Man, and attracted an equally eccentric group of individuals around him. His rock band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers was made up of individuals nearly as eccentric as Banzai himself. In addition to their musical talents, the band members all held advanced degrees from a vast field of studies. These men and women were world-class psychologists, anthropologists, engineers, rocket scientists, writers, and neurosurgeons; and not half-bad musicians either based on the string of popular hits released by the Hing Kong Cavaliers. The Cavaliers were almost as well known as Dr. Banzai himself, though for a variety of reasons, security being one of them, many were known only by nicknames like Rawhide, Perfect Tommy, Pecos, New Jersey, and Reno.

Joining the Hong Kong Cavaliers was a goal of many interns and researchers at the Institute, though membership required musical talent in addition to scientific or academic achievements, and reasonable martial skills as well. Over the years the Institute had taken a more proactive role in the world, with Dr. Banzai and his team providing assistance to law enforcement and governments across the globe to combat a range of threats both natural and man-made. Banzai established World Watch One, a global threat monitoring system, as well as a worldwide network of agents in the form of his fan club known as the Blue Blaze Irregulars.

One of the most persistent threats faced by Team Banzai over the years has been the World Crime League and their leader the notorious Shiwan "Hanoi" Xan. Battles between Team Banzai and the League were legendary, and costly, with League assassins killing Buckaroo's wife on the evening of their wedding. Eventually, with the help of Xan's own son, Team Banzai dealt a major blow to the League in a strike that nearly crippled the League and appeared to kill Xan himself. With that threat effectively eliminated Dr. Banzai and his team were able to change focus back to the pursuit of research to help humanity, while still using World Watch Online to monitor threats.

BANZAI WEST

A few years ago the Banzai Institute attempted to expand by creating a new campus on the west coast. Selecting Superior City as the site, the Institute acquires an old estate on the shores of the Columbia River and sets up the necessary research facilities and living quarters. Dr. Banzai and many of the Hong Kong Cavaliers temporarily relocate to help get the new campus up to speed.

The Banzai West campus and the resident Cavaliers would often find themselves assisting Superior City's new hero team Enforcers of Justice. Unfortunately, the presence of Buckaroo Banzai also attracted the attention of a resurgent World Crime League, which began plots and attacks against Dr. Banzai and the Banzai West Institute. The threat of the World Crime League, and a series of internal security breaches due to lapses in screening of researchers led Dr. Banzai to relucantly shut the Banzai West campus and return to New Jersey with the rest of the Hong Kong Cavaliers. The old Banzai West campus is now the location of the Superior City Academy.

This is a partial list of the researchers at Banzai West:

• Marie Ste. Claire:: cybernetics expert and secretly the hero Mystère
• Billy "The Kid" Travers: computer expert
• Scott Cohen: mathematician; he gained powers while on a research assignment and became the hero Twilight
• Dr. Larry Thornton: geneticist specializing in tissue regeneration, now employed at S.T.A.R. Labs
• Jani Yamahito: assistant to Dr. Thornton, Jani experimented on herself and was transformed into the creature called Talon
• Malcolm Brody: another cybernetics researcher, Malcolm stole advanced technology from the Institute and became the villain Wetware
• Linda Callahan: weapons engineer
• Alan Lindsay: head of security for Banzai West campus