And just like that, the Plumbers' superpowered unit was officially formed.
Ben gave them all matching uniforms—though not the white coveralls worn by your typical plumber. Instead, he outfitted them in black, with a few personal touches added on top.
Peter's Spider-suit, for example, hadn't been swapped out entirely for a black version. Rather, black sections had been added to the original red-and-blue suit, while the blue was deepened in tone, giving the whole thing a darker, more subdued look.
"I'm starting to look like a Dark Lord or something," Harry grumbled, shaking his head ruefully as he inspected his new getup.
His armor had likewise shifted to a dark green, looking even more sinister than before.
Still, he didn't dwell on it much. As chairman of Oscorp, he'd joined the Plumbers, but in practice he'd rarely be taking missions. Company matters mattered more to him—especially now. After snapping up a large chunk of Stark Industries stock, he'd secured a seat on the Stark board of directors, and he was already scheming about how to poach Pepper, that woman who was so brilliant at running a company.
Felicia and T'Challa's suits went unchanged since they were already black. As for Winter Soldier, Falcon, and the rest, their suits looked fairly plain—Ben had designed them directly after the special-division uniforms of the Plumbers from Ben 10.
If forced to describe them, they looked a bit like the outfit worn by an adult Jade.
Naturally, Ben provided upgraded gear as well, and everyone received a dose of Super-Soldier Serum.
After all, this was a superhero team. He couldn't very well have a few members whose physical specs were barely above a normal person's just coasting along.
Everyone was thrilled with their new equipment—especially Falcon. He'd been an ordinary discharged soldier whose only gear was a pair of wings. Not exactly strong, but honestly pretty weak. Now the Plumbers had not only upgraded his wings, but also given him the Super-Soldier enhancement serum. Round it off, and he was basically Captain America-level now.
Only Cap himself was less than thrilled.
His current look strongly resembled the suit from Avengers: Infinity War—the one from Wakanda. Except there was no shield on his arm; he still used his round shield. It was just that…
"Did you really have to repaint it?" Steve scratched his head, looking helplessly at the familiar-yet-strange adamantium-vibranium shield laid out before him.
The stars-and-stripes paint job had been stripped off by Ben and replaced with the Plumbers' insignia—a black-and-green hourglass emblem.
"That way it represents the Plumbers when you're leading," Ben said with a smile. "Before, you were only Captain America, serving a narrow national interest. But now you're a Plumber captain—leader of this superhero squad, serving all of humanity."
"And you'll never again have to worry about someone like HYDRA-SHIELD turning superheroes into tools and using force to rule the world, manipulating us."
"I just can't get used to the look, and besides…" Steve picked up the shield, running his hand over its surface. "The original paint job was so bright for a reason. It draws enemy attention, and the pattern works like a target—psychologically, it steers enemies into involuntarily shooting at the center of the shield. But this design…"
Peter shot to his feet in shock, the spider-eyes on his mask going wide. "What?! That shield actually had a taunt effect?"
"Why else do you think enemies never shoot at my legs?"
"I thought you were just that good, and you blocked everything with the shield," Peter said naively. Then a worried look crossed his face. "Ben, now that the paint's changed… what if the captain gets shot with a pistol?"
Ben glanced at him, wondering when the kid had started calling him "Ben" too, but he explained anyway: "Unless they're firing adamantium bullets, it won't do a thing."
"What do you mean?"
Peter was momentarily confused, but Natasha caught on quickly and asked in surprise, "You used vibranium to make the suits?"
A full vibranium suit—how much would that cost?
Even Stark's armor wasn't worth as much as one of these suits. If they ever quit, selling the suit alone would set them up for several lifetimes of retirement.
Sandman was likewise marveling at the suit on his body, and he seemed genuinely tempted by the idea of selling it.
After all, he was a Logia-type—he didn't need a suit for protection.
T'Challa's expression, however, was less than pleased. Most of the vibranium in Ben's possession had likely been taken from Ultron—and Ultron's vibranium had been stolen from Wakanda. One could say all the losses had landed on Wakanda's shoulders.
On top of that, his uniqueness as a superhero had always lain in his enhanced body and suit. Now everyone had body-enhancement serums, and their suits shared the same functions as his. It left him feeling as if he'd gone from core member to generic super-soldier in one stroke.
Still, he glanced at Steve Rogers and figured he hadn't gotten it too bad.
At least his power came from the Heart-Shaped Herb, and he could commune with the Panther God. Not like Steve—his only superpower was now one that everyone else had a copy of too. Even T'Challa himself had been given a dose of Super-Soldier Serum, and the gear in Steve's hands had essentially become decorative.
With a full suit, who needs a shield?
Its symbolic value far outweighed its practical use. Better to hang it on the outside of the Plumbers' space station as a hood ornament than leave it in his hands.
T'Challa swirled the serum in his hand, wondering whether the Super-Soldier Serum and Heart-Shaped Herb could stack—or whether he should hand it over to Shuri and see if she could replicate a batch to strengthen Wakanda's forces.
Ben's gaze swept across their faces one by one. He knew exactly what they were thinking, and so he said:
"William, don't get any ideas about selling the suit. Yours isn't vibranium—it's just a waterproof suit with nanotech. And the others' suits only contain trace amounts of vibranium, not pure vibranium."
No matter how much vibranium he had, he couldn't possibly forge entire suits out of the metal for them. But even with only trace vibranium woven in, the suits were priceless, and their durability went without saying—a direct missile strike wouldn't even scratch them.
As for T'Challa's little scheme, that didn't pan out either.
After handing out the suits, Ben began injecting them with Super-Soldier Serum.
In truth, ordinary serum was no longer a rarity within the Plumbers.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had spent years researching the serum only because the original formula had been lost. Once the cat had handed over the formula, the serum could be mass-produced, and many Plumbers had already been injected with it.
But Ben didn't want the serum to become too widespread. That wouldn't be a good thing.
"Ben, we don't need another injection, do we?" Felicia hopped over beside him and nudged his waist with her elbow, her face full of teasing amusement.
She found it rather fun to call him "Ben" like everyone else.
Harry nodded from the side as well. "I've already been injected with the serum. A repeat injection probably won't do anything."
"That's not necessarily true."
Ben shook his head. Repeat injections of the serum actually were effective. In some stories, one of Marvel's mightiest heroes—the Sentry, said to possess the power of a million exploding suns—was the product of a certain serum.
Which was also why Ben didn't want the formula floating around out there.
Whether it was mass-produced or modified, neither outcome was good.
But that wasn't what he wanted to discuss now.
"What you're holding is the enhanced version—Super-Soldier Serum No. 2. It further strengthens your abilities on top of your existing baseline."
At that, even Steve looked at the serum with renewed curiosity.
He was rather interested to see just how much his physical capabilities would improve after the enhanced injection.
"What Spider-Man has is a gene-supplement serum."
"Gene-supplement serum?" Peter blinked. It was the first time he'd heard the name. "What does it do?"
"As the name suggests, it fills in your missing superpowers," Ben said.
To give his little buddy a boost, he'd actually extracted a bit of his own genes and isolated the abilities of the black-suited Spider—electric discharge, electricity absorption, and invisibility.
Honestly, watching the cartoons back in the day had always left a sour taste in his mouth.
Peter Parker was the classic, but every Spider-Man who came after seemed to have flashier powers than he did, as if Peter were just the base-model template.
"Sounds pretty good," Peter said happily.
Next was Sandman. The serum in his hand wasn't Super-Soldier Serum either, but a "coagulant" tailored to his current condition—something that would let him become a true human when he wasn't actively using his powers.
Originally, Sandman had to constantly control his sand particles just to maintain a human appearance, and even then his skin would keep flaking off.
One could say that the reason he so loathed his own powers was because they'd turned him into a monster. But now, Ben had given him a chance to become human again. William Baker was naturally overwhelmed with gratitude.
Finally, there was Matt the lawyer.
"Daredevil doesn't get a serum. But I've prepared something else for you—Dr. Helen."
The Batman-esque jawline under Matt's mask shifted into a surprised angle. He'd long since noticed there was no serum on the table in front of him, but he'd kept quiet—after all, the Plumbers had already been generous enough handing out suits and equipment.
He knew he was just a blind man, and his superpowers weren't worth mentioning. He really wasn't worth that much investment.
But it turned out Ben had made other arrangements for him.
He sensed a person enter the meeting room. Even from her heartbeat alone, he could tell she was strong and vigorous—most likely a superhuman who'd been injected with the serum herself.
"This is Dr. Helen Cho," Ben said, making the introduction properly even though he knew Matt couldn't see. "Dr. Cho's Regeneration Cradle technology is now mature. It can repair damaged organs in the human body through technological means."
"Really? Could it even… repair the damage to my eyes…?"
Matt stood up in shock, and only after a moment did he realize he'd lost his composure. "Sorry, Dr. Cho, I just find it hard to believe."
He was so excited he was tripping over his words.
"Don't worry about it," Helen said with a smile. "Perfecting the Regeneration Cradle technology was also thanks to the boss—we owe it to the Extremis technology he provided. Repairing a pair of eyes is no difficult task."
Matt immediately looked toward Ben, overflowing with gratitude.
He thought back to his first meeting with Ben long ago, when they'd gone up against Muse. He'd felt deeply regretful then that the self-healing serum couldn't restore his sight.
He hadn't expected that the other man had never given up—and had actually developed this technology.
Ben shrugged.
It wasn't as if he'd researched it specifically; the technology had simply matured on its own. And he had Kilgrave—no, Killian—and his Extremis technology to thank. Otherwise, the Regeneration Cradle wouldn't have been so flawless, and they might have ended up with a body in strange colors, like Vision.
Come to think of it, in the Superior Iron Man comics, Matt had briefly regained his sight through Extremis as well.
But faced with Tony's threats, he'd given up the light and chosen justice.
Helen led the group off to the lab, preparing to inject each of them with their respective serums. It wasn't much trouble—Plumbers' technology had advanced to the point where all they had to do was lie down and get enhanced at the press of a button.
While they were all being loaded onto the treatment tables, Ben took the opportunity to check in with Norman on the progress of the Plumbers' Earth branch construction.
Norman planned to establish a sub-branch in every continent, and he'd already started hollowing out Mount Rushmore.
In his eyes nowadays, the president wasn't much of anything—Mount Rushmore was small potatoes, so hollowing it out was no big deal. The locations for the remaining bases were still under discussion, and he was inclined to place one near Wakanda.
Wakanda remained highly isolationist, especially after the Ultron incident—there was a real risk they'd shut their doors for another few hundred years.
Norman couldn't accept having such a lawless zone outside his jurisdiction.
"Wakanda's not really worth worrying about, but fine… when the time comes, let T'Challa and his people manage that branch themselves." Ben thought it over and decided not to meddle further in Wakanda's affairs.
Setting aside vibranium, nothing else there held much value in his eyes.
The Panther God and such—just a weak little deity, that's all.
The reason he'd agreed to Norman's proposal to build a branch there was because he remembered there was an Atlantis with some bad blood between them and Wakanda.
The lost undersea kingdom—that was the place truly outside the world's reach.
Of course, there were also the Inhumans.
Earth still had plenty of hidden nations, and the Plumbers' agents would have their work cut out for them.
He flipped through some more files and discovered that Thor had actually submitted a resume to the Plumbers, apparently interested in becoming a plumber.
"This salted fish is trying to flip over?"
Surprised, he ticked the application, intending to turn Thor into Loki's subordinate and let the two brothers go at each other.
Just as he was thinking this, Peter and the others emerged from the lab.
Steve walked at the front, shield in hand, looking every bit the spiritual leader; Black Cat and Spider-Man followed right behind, with the rest trailing after—all in a row, looking for all the world like the Plumbers' own gang.
Ben was satisfied.
"Excellent. From today on, you're the Thunderbolts."
/-\
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