A Brief History of the Null Void
(( ~ OOC: This is the fanon history of the Null Void as it pertains to this blog and the tie-in fan fiction “Elevator Monologue” which can be read on AO3. https://archiveofourown.org/series/720321 ~ ))
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The Null Void is a pocket dimension that exists outside of, but right next to, real space. It was first discovered by Galvan explorers thousands of years ago. Galvan leadership decided that the best use for this new discovery was as a penal colony.
Criminals, both native born Galvans, and aliens alike were sent to the Null Void to live out their sentences, removed from the rest of society and real space as a whole.
For some, this was the worst fate. Banished to another dimension, never to see families or friends again. Set adrift in a harsh and unforgiving landscape.
While others saw it as an opportunity. A way to make their own life in their own world. To start anew with no history or baggage to weight them down. A literal clean slate. In this brave new world to settle.
And settle it they did.
The Null Void settlers were responsible for the main agricultural advancement in the Null Void.
Light is scarce in the Null Void, and fresh water even more so. Still, the Null Void settlers managed to yield a crop with enough nutritional value to sustain themselves. After several harvests, they managed to prefect the growing process enough to produce a surplus that could be traded with others.
But not everyone that was sent to the Null Void was as self-reliant or community oriented as the Settlers. There were still always those whom would rather simply take rather than trade.
As a solution to this problem, the Galvan leadership, the ones who’s decision it was to use the Null Void as a penal colony in the first place, created the Null Guardians.
Artificially created lifeforms to act as watch dogs and protect the Settlers trying to make a new life for themselves.
As time went on and other planets and races discovered the Null Void, they started sending their own criminals and degenerates to the pocket dimension. The Null Void became a melting pot of different races, languages, cultures, and customs. Differed codes of ethics, and concepts of morality.
Eventually, it became too complicated for the simplified animal minds of the Null Guardians to maintain and the Plumbers had to step in.
They set up a prison in the Null Void.
Incarcecon.
No longer should planets or Plumbers just be throwing criminals in the Null Void casually. Now defendants must be tried, judged, and sent to a prison where they could be kept away from the now-natives of the Null Void that just want to live their lives unmolested.
Incarcecon was a way to bring some version of order and safety to the Null Void. All of it run and maintained under Plumber purview.
But even Plumbers are not above corruption.
It was discovered that Incarcecon was built on top of a natural deposit of a unique mineral native to the Null Void. When ground down into a fine powder and inhaled, it would induce visions, hallucinations, and dream-states. Such a drug would sell very well on the intergalactic black market. A prison guard by the name of Morgg recognized this and staged a coup.
He took over the prison. Killed a number of inmates during the initial fight. Replaced all the other guards with robots loyal to him. And installed himself as Warden. In control now, Morgg converted Incarcecon from a prison into a forced labor camp. Using the existing inmates and any new inmates that were teleported in as slaves to mine his product.
This went largely unnoticed and unchecked by the Plumbers back in real space until Kevin 11,000 (whom was then known as “Ultimate Kevin” at the time) returned to Incarcecon to exact revenge on Morgg for killing an inmate close to him. With Kevin came, the Hero of the Universe, Ben 10,000 (whom was then still only “Ben 10″) followed him to prevent Kevin from exacting his revenge. Events unfolded as events involving Ben 10,000 usually do. Kevin did not get the revenge he wanted exactly, but the corrupt Warden was deposed, and the inmates took over the compound.
Incarcecon still stands today. But it goes by the name the Free Fortress and the same inmates who once called it a prison now call it “home”.
Around the same time as Incarcecon’s slave labor, another Plumbers project was going on in the Null Void.
The Null Void was so full of different species and races, different languages and dialects, different cultures and customs, a project of Cultural Sensitivity began. A team called the Rooters and lead by a Proctor ranked Plumber by the name Hector Servantis.
They were the first Plumbers unit to be based in the Null Void.
But they were not without their fair share of corruption.
Not long after the formation of the project, Proctor Servantis learned of a powerful piece of Galvan tech, arguably the most dangerous weapon in the known universe... and this advanced technology was given to a child. An Earthling child of the age of ten.
Human children that young should not be given that kind of responsibility. Human children that young were still learning right from wrong. In the hands of a child, the Omnitrix could un-make the universe.
Servantis switched his mission goal from cultural sensitivity and mediation to something entirely different and not at all in alignment with his original mission statement.
In the end, not much came of the Rooters plans.
Eventually, the Magistrata was made aware of what Servantis was doing and confiscated his base, stripped Servantis and his Rooters of their ranks and privileges, and banished the team to the same Null Void they had abandoned.
No longer Plumbers, the Rooters became just another band of criminals sentenced to live out their remaining days in the Null Void.
And the Null Void was not as safe as it used to be.
Not to imply that the Null Void was ever “safe” to begin with. But, it had increased in dangers in recent years -mainly since Ben 10,000 (then still just “Ben 10″) began throwing his enemies into it without formal trial or sentencing.
Most notable of these dangers are the Mutant To’kustar, commonly referred to as “Way Bads”.
The Way Bads continue to be a problem, as do the Rooters that the Magistrata left to wander the Void unsupervised.
In an attempt to solve these new issues, a new plan was implemented. Not another prison or a covert team to operate autonomously, but a proper Plumbers base, same as any outpost in any star system in real space.
A Plumbers Headquarters here in the Null Void.
Plumbers HQ-NV.
Currently, the base and corresponding Plumbers officers are running under the leadership of Magister Rook Blonko, a Revonnahgander from Revonnah.
Magister Rook is the former partner of the famous Hero of the Universe, Ben 10,000 and has lots of experience mediating difficult situations.
However, there is a rumor floating around that another change in the Null Void’s Plumbers leadership is in the works.
Some even whisper that Kevin 11,000 will return to the Void...
