Board Thread:Series Discussion/@comment-4050367-20151227062651/@comment-4050367-20151227064920

Because the backstory is confusing, here's a chronological version:

The Backstory
In the year 2006, during research on the Moon, a hidden substance underneath the rocky surface was revealed and brought back to Earth for study. The substance, known as Codon, although there was initial hope that it could be used as an alternative energy source, combined with a new strain of influenza, created a dangerous virus known as the Codon virus. The new strain of influenza had been introduced after being released from an icecap in the arctic which melted due to global warming. (Prometheus)

The influenza began affecting Americans in 2008 by spreading across the oceans to the shores of Highwood, Massachusetts, hometown of Ben Tennyson. Physicians began to notice people getting influenza after swimming at the beaches, and decided to investigate the waters.Meanwhile, Randon Enterprises was officially approved of conducting studies in a deal with the United States Department of Energy and NASA on Codon. A shipment of Codon was brought to Highwood.

Unforunately, disaster struck when a blown-out tire caused the truck containing the Codon to crash a few miles away from Highwood, into the water on September 19, 2009. The Codon leaked into the waters, and the driver was killed in the crash. As luck would have it, Ben Tennyson would be swimming in this region, and would be affected by the Codon, thus becoming the host for the Codon virus. (Return to the Beginning)

A break-out of the Codon virus began in Highwood and quickly spread across the globe until 2014, when the Codon virus became a pandemic. Rumors about Ben began to spread, as he showed no physical signs of containing the virus, and was suspected of possibly being immune. However, as panic spread and people began to fight for limited resources, Ben was criticially injured in Bellwood, California, having moved their after Highwood became a desolate place completely devestated by the Codon virus. Max Tennyson took down the remaining raiders, and tried to stop the bleeding as best as he could. (A Tale of Tennysons) (Prometheus) (Return to the Beginning)

Between 2014 and 2037, an increase in the damaging effects of global warming, the introduction of a severe crop blight, and a global war for resources after the introduction of the Codon virus, humanity was brought to its knees, and Earth became nearly inhospitable. A group of humanity came together for Operation Galvan, creating an O'Neill cylinder space habitat to survive in space while searching for a new planet. Escaping to a distant region of the galaxy, they found a new planet in the year 2109. Humanity survived, but the conditions of the new planet altered humanity until they became known as the Galvans, and their planet Galvan Prime.

Several millennia later, Galvan Prime was beginning to face the same problems Earth had. A group of leaders and scientists came together to suggest ideas. A radical scientist by the name of Azmuth proposed that they were bound to make the same mistakes repeatedly in this timeline, but if they were rewrite history, they could potentially change the future. Azmuth, a researcher who had been spending hours in the archives studying the old humanity and Earth learned about Bellwood and the rumor of an immune who had been killed. Azmuth suggested that they bring Bellwood to their time, along with all of the people in it, and clone the original Ben for a series of tests to determine how he had his immunity, and to possibly use his immune DNA to bring about the creation of an immune human species, before placing them back in 2014, and create a new timeline in which an immune human race would be able to survive, and potentially not be forced to leave Earth.

Although this would mean that the Galvan race would never exist, the committee agreed to promote this new experiment as they looked for other alternatives. Azmuth began preparing for his experiment with the creation of a site for the experiment: an artificial planet by the name of Primus. Once his experiment was ready, the Galvans tore a hole in space-time and plucked Bellwood from its location on Earth to Primus. The Creators mindswiped the entire population, and saved Ben (now known as Ben Zero) from death. (Prometheus)

Max Tennyson encountered the Creators, who explained that they brought Bellwood to the future as an effort to save the human race. Believing that Ben was the key, the Creators asked Max to help them understanding human biology and to help assist them as they tried to recreate Ben through B.E.N.s - Biologically Engineered Necromorphs. Max agreed to assist Project Codon, and the Creators kept a close eye on him as he assisted. (A Tale of Tennysons)

Each experiment or B.E.N. was an attempt to recreate the genetic settings that Ben Zero had, while the environment was recreated through Bellwood. When the first three Bens were created, and the third one died, Azmuth began to lose hope. Azmuth was convinced by The Creators to create a fourth Ben, who would become the Shapeshifting Ben. When this Ben appeared to be fine, Azmuth regained hope. However, he eventually learned that through genetic tampering, The Creators had secretly given Ben an ability to shapeshift, and that his true form was just as mutated.

Azmuth realized that The Creators had secretly been planning to betray Azmuth and take over Project Codon. They considered Azmuth to have failed in his vision, but still believed Project Codon had potential. Their intentions were to take control of the Galvan race, considering the current leaders inadequate due to making the same mistakes as their predecessors on Earth. To do this, they were using Project Codon to create a perfect human being who would serve as the genetic template for a one-man army, or rather an army of clones that would quickly defeat the Galvans, and take control of Galvan Prime. (Prometheus) (Those Who Have Lost Their Way)

Azmuth decided to recruit Max Tennyson to stop The Creators, as Max had shared suspicion on their motives. Max had hoped Project Codon could be used to bring back Ben, as the Ben he had lived with, Ben Zero, would likely never survive a removal from his cryofreeze chamber. Azmuth and Max went against The Man in the Red and White Suit and ''The Man in the Green Suit. ''Max was detained by The Plumbers while Azmuth escaped to a hidden sanctuary build underneath Bellwood, a facility known as Providence. From here, he began to operate under the name of "Prometheus", after the greek being of old human mythology. (A Tale of Tennysons) (Prometheus)

Max Tennyson was forced to continue working on the B.E.N.s, helping to create the fifth and sixth B.E.N.s until The Creators wanted to take the designs to new directions. In an attempt to destroy their work, Max decided that the Ben he knew was lost, and that if The Creators were the future of humanity, then humanity should be damned to extinction. One night, Max snuck out of Bellwood into the woods to go to the Codon Facility. The Creators, being alerted, sent out their mutated creatures they'd created to hunt him down. Max managed to escape the attack however, and was successful in breaching the wall, heading to the facility. (Preface) (A Tale of Tennysons)

Max attempted to unplug Ben Zero, but The Creators stopped him. Max escaped from the facility, getting through the wall and into the woods. The Creators let loose Shapeshifter Ben, who had been in cryo, and their creations, which included Chupacabras, into the woods to hunt him down. Shapeshifter Ben eventually captured Max, before returning with him to the Codon Facility. After deciding on his fate, The Creators left Max to die in the wild nature of Primus with zero resources, figuring he would be dead within a few days. Yet Max managed to survive thanks to the help of Azmuth, who identified himself as "Prometheus" when in contact with Max to avoid attention from The Creators. This would go on for fifteen years. (Preface) (A Tale of Tennysons)

In the fifteen years after Max's Attempt, The Man in the Red and White Suit decided to continue to use Shapeshifter Ben as an ally. Soon afterwards, The Creators gave him the job of pretending to be Max Tennyson. This began the process of creating fictional stories to explain the B.E.N.s' apparent amnesia, which in reality was a lack of memories due to being created out of a test tube, and to keep an eye on them once they were no longer mutating or exploding. (Ghosts in the Machine) (Codon)

One of the Creators, named Vladislaus Alrion, played the role of the mayor of Bellwood to keep a close on the population. When someone in the town, or one of the B.E.N.s began asking too many questions or learned something they shouldn't have, the Creators used a mindswiping program underneath Max's Plumbing to erase memories and "restart their memories". Whenever a B.E.N. failed, they would mindswipe the entire town population, restarting the experiment and bring in a new B.E.N. The new B.E.N. would be visited by The Man in the Green Suit, who went by the name of Dr. Bill Gacks. The many eyes of The Creators would restart the experiment several times if necessary. (Ghosts in the Machine) (Codon)

Of course, the procedure wasn't perfect, as occassionaly memories of the past would remain, such as in the case of Nurse Jackie, Rigon Handious and Jimmy Jones. Nurse Jackie's smoking habits had affected her brain chemistry. Rigon had a brain tumor altering the chemistry in his brain, while Jimmy had a small metal plate implanted in his skull after an injury before 2014. These blocked the full power of mindswipe, allowing them to retain some memories. In all three cases however, they were quickly killed and the entire town was partly mindswiped to forget they existed. Ben 10 would not be affected by the mindswipe in all of these cases though thanks to the anti-mindswipe technology in the Omnitrix and the nature of the synethic DNA implanted into his system. (Preface) (You Can Not Leave Bellwood) (Not What He Seems) (Prometheus)

Fifteen years after Max's attempt, Project Codon was on it's tenth B.E.N. trial. In his exile, Azmuth had been studying the Codon virus, and was successful in discovering that Amber oegia could counteract it. Believing that humanity had a chance for once, Azmuth created a formula that contained synthetic DNA with the chemical components of Amber oegia, which would alter macromolecules infected with the Codon virus and shut the virus down. In a dangerous move, he returned to the Codon facility and risked his life to inject the formula into the prototype B.E.N. before fleeing. The Creators assumed that Azmuth had attempted to shut Project Codon again, and used Shapeshifter Ben, now posing as Max Tennyson, to begin searching for "Prometheus", who they realized had been Azmuth all along. (Prometheus) (Ground Zero)

At last, the tenth trial began with a new mindswipe for the town. Shapeshifter Ben, the Evil Max, created the backstory of Ben's parents having died in a car crash outside of town, and that the blunt drama had caused amnesia, forcing Max to take Ben in as his legal guardian. The plan was set into motion, and Ben was transported from the Codon Facility to Bellwood, having a tattoo on his arm that represented the Galvan symbol for 10, referencing him being the tenth B.E.N. (Preface) (Ghosts in the Machine) (Codon)