History
Vachon's Island was the base of the crimelord Emil Vachon who ran drug and prostitution rings. It's subterranean complex was both an ultra-modern fortress and a luxurious palace.[1] He possessed anti-gravity technology that no one else had and there was a harem on the island. The primary seamount was hollow and within it was a nearly 1,000 ft tall central core. That was crowned by a network of floating platforms, which he called the "Eagle's Nest".[1][2] Crossing the volcano's cone was a causeway, with the cone going a mile deep below it.
Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, were in Hong Kong looking to avenge Colleen's grandfather who Vachon had assassinated. They ended up in a running battle with his men, and after an explosion knocked them out, they were captured and taken to his island. He planned to sell them into slavery, and to make them pliable, had them injected with heroin (though unknown to him, Misty was getting the needle in her bionic arm). Misty Knight escaped the prison cell and battled her way through the base, while Colleen attempted to get her heroin addiction under control. Emil Vachon defeated Misty Knight and was on the verge of killing her, when Colleen intervened. After a martial arts battle that ended in a sword fight, she killed Vachon.[1]
Years later, the island came under the control of the Hand, who turned it into a base. They had subterranean docks within a large cavern and electronic surveillance systems were used to monitor the approaches to the island.[3] When the Hand found Psylocke washed up on the shores on the island, they swapped her mind and that of the assassin Kwannon. The Hand then brainwashed Psylocke into becoming a Hand assassin who was put in the service of the Mandarin. As the "Lady Mandarin" she used the anti-gravity environment to train, fighting Hand assassins. Eventually with the assistance of Wolverine and Jubilee, she broke free of the Hand's conditioning and turned on both the Hand and the Mandarin.[4]