The Plumbers

## Plumbers

The **Plumbers** were a defunct and decommissioned secret organization that was designed to contain and identify irregularities and anomalies on Earth, which was more often than not the result of extraterrestrial activity. These individuals were tasked with "plugging up leaks" that occurred throughout the planet, protecting society from any danger and handling situations before any government or public organizations became aware. Sometime before and by the year 2005, nearly every living Plumber was retired and no longer on active duty, including Max Tennyson. The group, so heavily shrouded in secrecy, lost its history and faded into obscurity, remaining functionally abandoned until Ben Tennyson, Gwen Tennyson, and Kevin Levin kickstarted the organization's revival in 2010, due to Highbreed activity on Earth and out of respect for the cousins' grandfather.

## Appearance

In Ben 10 (OS), the standard issue Plumber suit that Max Tennyson wore was a grey-ish blue blend of space and hazmat suit, with various uses of a special rubber material integrated throughout the design, such as at the joints, the neck, the gloves, and the boots. The Plumber suit came equipped with a utility belt with multiple pouches for storing equipment along with a steady oxygen supply filtered into the helmet, which had a dark blue visor to protect the wearer's face. A Plumber badge was located at the left side of the wearer's chest, and the extraterrestrial division's identifying symbol was patched onto the right shoulder of Max's suit specifically.

In Ben 10: Omnitrix Awakened (OA), the notable changes to the suit's design after the Plumbers are reinstated, and once a select few individuals become the group's first new members in decades, are that the visor color has been slightly modified due to an updated material and now resembles a pale orange, the base material now resembles an olive green for similar reasons, advanced pieces of modern technology have been integrated in various ways, such as the Holographic Vision Display Interface (H.V.D.I.), as well the Plumber's badge now acting as a compact, portable storage for the suit itself so that members are able to equip themselves at a moment's notice.

## History

* **Before 1910 (Origins)**: The "Federal Bureau of Oddities, Abnormalities and Irregularities" was first established within the United States government prior to World War I as a reaction to various cryptids and mythical creatures reported by citizens across the country. This was a cover, however, as the organization's deceptive true purpose was as a place to launder government funds and undermine yearly expense reports, an attempt at hiding from its citizens just how much money the U.S. had been pouring into special research projects and military applications annually. "Plumbers", as a nickname, was born from those who were relocated from their government positions to the newly created team, the nickname of which was used as a code name of sorts between members who felt that their new positions were the equivalent of working in the sewers of government. The name was also used in order to help keep the organization's true purpose a secret and to identify one another in a covert capacity.

* **Before 1918 (World War I)**: By 1917, government spending had shifted since the start of World War I in 1914, and the organization was all but abandoned as there was now a scapegoat for government spending in the form of funding the war effort with the United States now entering the war, which meant there was no need for the bureau in its current capacity. In an effort to conceal any previous wrongdoing or trace blame back to them if ever discovered, the United States government detached itself from the organization and wiped every trace of them from within their records. Those who did not return to their previous government positions, out of spite for being relocated in the first place, remained, and became the first batch of official Plumbers during the onset of World War I, where surprisingly, the initial cover story they were handed began to carry tangible weight as more and more reports of cryptids continued to stockpile with an increasingly concerning amount of evidence. These first Plumbers decided to forgo their previous positions and take the threat seriously, starting the very first investigations that defined the early years of the Plumbers. Due to the government's severed ties, there was now no paper trail of funding of any kind, which meant that the Plumbers had a substantial stockpile of cash and resources to use towards building the organization from the ground up. Unfortunately for the government, they never truly stopped the flow of cash to the organization itself, which began rerouting funds through several layers of bank accounts, effectively funding their organization for the foreseeable future on top of the cash they already owned, all without the government knowing.

* Many of their early investigations were dead ends and bore no fruit, but eventually, one trail of clues and a string of missing persons led to the discovery and capture of a West Virginian Mothman. The Plumbers were not, however, aware of its children, which led to several similar Mothman appearances in the next decades, along with multiple attempts to contain them.

* With the government's attention being solely focused on winning the war, the Plumbers were able to act virtually undetected by any watchful eyes, allowing them to entrench themselves across the country at key locations. Alongside that, with much of the country's youth and able-bodied citizens fighting in the war, monsters and cryptids seemed to crop up in new locations thanks to the lessened quantity of civilians, becoming riskier and mischievous in the process. Such is the case with Amatol, New Jersey, where publicly, it is believed that its residents simply relocated to other towns due to their dying ammunition factories and better job opportunities elsewhere. The true culprit, however, was known to the Plumbers as the Amatol Specter, a creature that had been living in the walls of one of the factories that had built a nest there. Workers continuously went missing until all that remained was an abandoned factory filled with drained husks that mildly resembled human bodies. The Plumbers' mission against the Specter proved to be their deadliest yet, losing the bulk of their assigned agents in the process and forcing them to obtain better equipment for potentially similar situations.

* **Before 1945 (World War II)**: After World War I ended, the Plumbers began a recruiting spree, selecting specific veterans of the war who leaned into fields of science and engineering before they were drafted for the war effort. The goal was to combine both strength and intellect, for they were wary of the potential dangers they might face in this new world they were beginning to explore, wanting experienced soldiers to help strengthen the organization. Eventually, however, they also began recruiting from top universities across the country, graduates and doctors of whom they considered to be of great importance in the task of researching the newly discovered creatures. It was by this time, close to 1930, that the organization had officially named itself the Plumbers. In the next few years, after almost a decade of research, they would also create their first functional uniforms and weapons to better protect themselves in dangerous situations. Previously, they simply wore standard clothing or dark coats, with a concealed badge for identification. These years acted as a transition from a detective agency-styled organization to a men in black-styled organization, with more effective methods at "plugging leaks" being developed along with an increasing amount of secrecy for its members.

* Within these years and leading up to World War II, the Plumbers also intervened in the construction of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, planting key Plumbers in high-profile positions that oversaw and organized the construction effort, while also paying off or recruiting much of the construction workers. The construction workers in question were happy to keep their mouths shut about the mysterious new building orders due to the overwhelming amount of money they were paid, an amount that would feed their families long after they were gone. Mount Rushmore, for a time, acted as the new, state-of-the-art Plumber headquarters, until a much better facility was constructed underneath the Hoover Dam during its reconstruction in the late 1940's.

* In the early 1930's, what is now known to both the Plumbers and the Forever Knights historically as the "Liverpool Extraterrestrial Event and Conference" had occurred during a routine, international investigation. By this time, the Plumbers had been working internationally out of respect for America's allies, hoping to strengthen both domestic and foreign soil by stopping cryptids and creatures at every turn and under the cover of diplomatic meet-and-greets. It was in this encounter that not only brought extraterrestrial aliens to the attention of the Plumbers, but also to an emerging organization within British borders that was very similar to the Plumbers in motivation. A local volunteer group in Liverpool, with connections and detachments in major British cities, known as the "Knackered Knights of the Unknown, Unexplainable, Inexplicable, or downright Ghastly" had first arrived at the crash site before Plumbers caught wind of the unfolding situation. It was here where the Plumbers first attempted to negotiate with their neighboring organization as their goals aligned with one another quite well. Both the Plumbers and the Knights wagered an agreement, and brought the extraterrestrial life form back to the United States, where the Plumbers had better equipped facilities that could handle containment procedures. The two groups traded in intel, research, and very quickly began intermingling with one another. The two leaders of their respective organizations at the time, Acting Director of the Plumbers, Yosef Isenberg, and the Chairwoman of the Knights, Krisha Beck, were quickly involved in a romantic relationship that brought the Plumbers and Knights closer together, with talks of a merger well underway. Eventually, their marriage took place on the Isle of Man.

* What could have been a long and prospering agreement between two groups was short lived, as not every Knight was on board with sharing the legacy of their work with Americans, along with the fact the fact that they wanted to implement more aggressive methods of handling contained specimens. Fueling this rivalry was the fact that Krisha Beck had so willingly forfeited the alien creature to American outsiders instead of allowing their group to research it internally first, a moment of spite that would unravel the two organizations' coexistence.

* In 1939, at the start of World War II, a much quieter, covert act took place alongside the infighting of European countries. The Chairwoman of the Knights, Krisha Beck, was assassinated by long-standing and high-ranking member George Reneday, taking command of and reforming the previous organization into the Forever Knights in a coup that defined both organizations going forward, becoming the very first Forever King in the process.

* While the world was at war and in chaos, so were the Plumbers and the Knights. After years of relationship building and peaceful coexistence, the event shattered relations between the two groups, with hundreds of members forced to switch sides out of attachment to their new friendships and relations, or forced to withdraw from the organization altogether to avoid the fallout, which occurred frequently with those who had started families. Loyalist Plumbers and Knights infiltrated both sides and pulled the strings of many individuals, including those of Yosef Isenberg, who was mourning his wife and in a state of grief.

* At this time, to protect himself and the remnants of the Plumbers, a close ally of Yosef and high-ranking member of the Plumbers named Peter Campbell took over the position of Acting Director, leading the organization through their war with the Forever Knights. Both sides intervened on different sides of the war, with the newly formed Forever Knights attempting to infiltrate and undermine their own government in order to effectively dampen any chance of U.S. involvement, a strategy that pushed them further and further from their original motives as an organization and towards shadier and more deceptive tactics. A part of these attempts included allowing Oswald Mosley to rise to power within the United Kingdom in the late 1930's before his imprisonment in 1940, an event that crippled future plans for the Knights.

* In 1945 and on the Isle of Man, a place that once harbored the peaceful coexistence between the two organizations had now become the staging ground for the conflict's last stand. Peter Campbell came to blows with George Reneday, with the full force of their organizations behind them in one of the most decisive battles of World War II that would unsurprisingly never be mentioned in history books or disclosed publicly. Rumors would spread about the event that occurred that day, but to the Plumbers, the event would triumphantly be called Beck's Final Rest, whereas for the Forever Knights, the day would infamously be called the Isle of Man Massacre.

* George Reneday's son, Christopher Reneday, would take up leadership over the shattered remains of the Forever Knights and immediately swore revenge against Peter Campbell, twisting the Forever Knights into an obsessive group that harbored much hatred for the Plumbers and with limited knowledge of extraterrestrial activity and technology that their rivals possessed. Taking his victory in stride and the threat of Reneday seriously, Peter Campbell went into hiding and severed his connection with the Plumbers, marrying the woman he had been dating secretly for several years, disclosing his true profession to her, and taking her last name for himself, Tennyson. The two had a child together during the summer of 1945, a child that Peter would eventually pass down his love of space and science onto. Later that year, World War II came to a close with the surrender of Japan.

* **Before 1969 (The Space Race)**: With previous conflicts out of the way, fully-fledged research was conducted immediately on the alien specimen that had been retrieved years prior, along with a restructure of the organization with new security protocols put in place.

* Coinciding multiple extraterrestrial appearances on the planet was the Space Race between the United States and Russia, the research and technological advancements of which helped the Plumbers gain a new outlook on their organization and how much wider the scope of their protection was needed. The Plumber's then Acting Director, Louis Tarkovsky, divided the Plumbers into multiple divisions, each with their own priority, designations, and responsibilities. The most successful and advanced of which became known as the extraterrestrial division, which was infamous among the organization as one of the more rigid and by-the-book divisions with a very exclusive and limited membership.

* During Max Tennyson's tenure as an astronaut for NASA, he was a part of the NASA Astronaut Corps and was the youngest member of the second group of astronauts selected at the time. Max was originally intended and trained to be the first man on the moon, until two veteran Plumber agents named Richard Pugsley and Patrick Klein discovered Max and his skillset and quickly began the initial stages of his initiation; an attempt to discover if he was Plumber material. The fact that they were planning on recruiting the son of their former leader was an astounding coincidence and was a fact that no one ever discovered, as the Tennyson name meant little to them and Max was living on his own at this time.

* During the mid 1960's, a young Max Tennyson was subject to an intense string of unusual circumstances, planted events by the two agents as a part of his initiation. It first began with conditioning him with the possibility of alien life existing, which then moved to shadowy figures following him in the night on several occasions. A part of this initiation was to also detect if Max was capable of enduring intense paranoia, and to detect if his skills were sharp enough to withstand the process in general. To their surprise, the young astronaut ambushed both of the agents one night, having been aware of them for weeks and cataloguing their every move. Little did they know, Max was doing some investigating of his own, and routinely followed them to various destinations after their nightly initiation tactics.

* It was then when the two agents came partially clean about their motives, and asked the young Max Tennyson if he was ready to take the next step. Max was shocked to then find himself in a room with a living, breathing alien, one that they had discovered a few years prior and were monitoring in Earth's environment. The two agents, while assuredly confused, very quickly realized how suitable Max was as a candidate due to what seemed like flirting between the young man and the alien life form, one of the last things they expected to occur.

* Max Tennyson then quickly disappeared off NASA's radar, dropping out of the astronaut program and beginning his new life as the youngest agent of the Plumbers. Neil Armstrong would take his place aboard the planned mission to the moon, while Max's first official mission in space was to monitor the moon landing and make sure there was no alien activity during the process, he had been active on Earth for a few years at this point, monitoring the planet alongside his fellow Plumbers. He was assigned a partner, Phil Livingston, and the two would spend the next decades protecting Earth from hostile alien activity, including the moment the Plumbers first encountered Vilgax in the late 1960's. Max Tennyson formed a relationship with Xylene during this time, an individual that would bring the Omnitrix to Earth in an attempt to deliver it to her former partner, with the device accidentally ending up in the hands of Max's grandson, Ben Tennyson, and all of their relationship took place in the years leading up to the late 1960's, a few years before Max's children are born. During Max's rookie days, the Plumber Lawrence Driscoll was caught stealing weapons and tech off of captured criminals. He was then kicked out of the Plumbers before fully devoting himself to the ideals of the Forever Knights, eventually rising quickly within their ranks over the next few decades.

* **Before 1985 (The Golden Years)**: It was the next several decades that established the Plumbers' defining years, with a mountain of successful operations for the organization, the successful protection of Earth on multiple occasions, the development of several bases and prisons across the country, as well as the establishment of connections with many individuals beyond the stars.

* During the peak of his career in the 1970's, in 1972 Max married a woman he was seeing for some time after Xylene's absence, having two children named Carl and Frank. He slowly distanced himself from his career as a Plumber from this point onwards, but always had to choose between one or the other, which resulted in his children lacking a father figure for much of their youth as Max's responsibility as one of the Plumbers' best agents took its toll. Max's last moments with his fellow agents was when his mentors, Richard and Patrick, were both killed on a mission by a group of escaped Null Guardians. He finally decided to put his foot down and retire in the mid 1980's, spending as much time with his family as he could, even if the relationship was strained.

* **Before 2005 (Decommissioning)**: The familial strain and tension between Max Tennyson and his children did not carry over to his grandchildren, however, as he was able to be an impactful and present role model in their lives from the very day they were born in 1994, something he regretted not being able to do for his own children and a regret that kept him up at night for the rest of his life - especially after the passing of his wife in 1998, whom he promised he would always be there when she needed him.

* Post 1985, many veteran Plumbers passed away and many more retired to focus on family after the job became increasingly difficult as a result of fewer veteran members, the Plumber Old Guard, being available. Some others became disillusioned with the ideals of the Plumbers as well, with the Forever Knights poaching key members of the organization and corrupting a select few, such as former partners of Driscoll who began to notice the deterioration of the Plumbers.

* **2005 (OS)**: The Plumbers were functionally defunct by the time Ben Tennyson received the Omnitrix. Max Tennyson, now a former and retired agent of the Plumbers, still had access to the Plumbers Facility at Mount Rushmore, which was one of the most highly guarded and elaborate facilities that the Plumbers had within their organization by this time, growing heavily from its days as a headquarters. He continued to use it as a storage center for much of the technology and gadgets that he used in his early years. Max's former partner, Phil, also used equipment from the facility, however his motives were much more nefarious. Since Phil's imprisonment in the Null Void by the Tennysons, Max had been the only member of the Plumbers Old Guard that has stepped inside for years, until it eventually came under assault by Driscoll and his newly formed team of villains.