The United States Military Academy - West Point, NY
Today is not a day to be late. Dynamo said to himself. Today was the end of his old life and the beginning of his new one – here, in the “future”. He checked his cape again, for the tenth time. Edith had made his last one, this one was not made of cotton – but wouldn’t rip at the slightest bit of damage. He smiled and hoped she’d approve. His old cape, along with his old uniform was folded neatly on his bed; along with everything else he owned. It all fit nicely into a medium-sized bag. The army would see to shipping it to The Pier.

Other than one incident, his return had been largely kept under-wraps. And, he hadn’t stayed around long enough to answer any questions (see Dynamo #1, editor). He would do his best to keep those questions unanswered, at least for now.

He left West Point, flying north and then east out over the Atlantic, this way he could fly into the Pier without having to cross much land, helping to keep a low profile.

Somewhere, deep under the Atlantic
Today is not a day to be late. Today was a day of fruition, the end of one thing and the beginning of another. Doctor Devilfish smiled as he looked at his creation. It had taken years and hundreds of trials and errors to get it like this. But today, after ... after ... well, after nearly 40 years of the world thinking he had simply gone away. After the years of being laughed at and years of hearing from his wife and mother-in-law what a failure he was ... TODAY! he would see his vengeance on world.

Of course, he’d start with Boston. The city where his mother-in-law lived; well, the old bat was probably dead now. But that was the place where Melissa had gone when she’d left him ... Gone, back to her mother and Boston. Oh yes! They would feel his righteous fury today. “Won’t they?” He said to the giant sea monster’s eye.

He looked at her, he had named her Melissa after the only woman he had ever loved. He wanted to pat her on the cheek and tell her that together they would make everything OK. Together, they would bring momma back home.

The Atlantic Ocean, east of Boston
Dynamo flew high and north of the planes entering the Logan airspace and then he was out over the water. He turned southeast, preparing to fly around Cape Cod and Nantucket, when he saw a strange ‘bubble’ of water. He snapped to a stop and spun in the air.

From the waters, a great sea creature appeared ... and on him, rode a man – in a underwater suit of some kind.

“Today!!” Doctor Devilfish shouted, riding on the head of his creation. “First Boston, then all the world will know my wrath! No one will ever laugh at us again! All will hail us as this world’s new ru...”

The monster submerged again, ending Doctor Devilfish’s rant, mid-word. Dynamo flew closer and when it looked it was about to resurface, he flew to intercept. He saw that it was coming up again and prepared to meet it head on.

The monster hit Dynamo and sent him flying through the air.

“You won’t stop me, whoever you are!” The mad Doctor cried. “You will be the first to kneel before me!”

That hurt! Dynamo thought. He pulled himself back out of the water to see what had hit him. The sea monster – it looked like a very mean, very large, prehistoric squid covered in parts by red and green chitinous armor and horns. On it’s head road a man, he was wearing a blue and orange diving suit that seemed a little too large for him, with a blue helmet. In his hands was a trident. The man’s voice was impossibly loud.

He flew back into the air. “It’ll take more than that!” He said, flying back toward man and beast. He hammered the beast in the side of its head, sending it reeling to port and nearly throwing Doctor Devilfish off.

“Stand down now villain, this is your only warning.” Dynamo said.

“It will take more than some imposter-Dynamo to stop me.” Devilfish said, speakers projecting his voice, “I have been planning my revenge for years. Attempts and abortions, failures and condemnations, trials and error! You have no idea how long I have ... ... have ... ... waited for this moment. You will be but a speed bump on Doctor Devilfish’s path to ... path to ... path to ...!” He clutched his chest and fell off the sea monster.

Dynamo moved quickly to catch him, then turned and flew at his fastest to shore. Once he was on dry-land, he ripped the helmet off and saw the face of an old man. His mouth was curled from the pain in his chest, but his eyes had nothing in them but hatred and spite. Still, in a moment he cried for ...

“Melissa!” The old man said, “You must save Melis...”

Dynamo performed CPR on the older man, gently compressing his chest and breathing for him until the paramedics arrived.

“Nice Dynamo costume.” One of them said to him, “It’s about time someone picked up that name. Who is that guy?”

“Said his name was Doctor Devilfish.” Dynamo said, hoping that one of them had more information about him and this Melissa.

“Huh, never heard of him.” Both paramedics shrugged as they put him in the back of their ambulance.

“I have called the police and they will meet you at the hospital; even if I’m not sure what his crime was.” Dynamo said, “Now, I must be off.”

The Atomic hero flew off in the direction of the sea monster. She was easy to find – holding a fishing boat in her tentacles. Dynamo saw several members of the boat’s crew hanging on for dear life and sped toward them. This time, he was ready when the giant beast slapped at him. Dynamo dodged the blow, flying around it and then grabbed two of the men, then the third. Flying them to the safety of an on-coming Coast Guard cutter.

“Bobby and the Captain are still aboard.” One of the fishermen told him.

Dynamo nodded, wondering how much longer it would be before the boat was crushed in those powerful arms. “I’ll be right there.” He said before he rocketed back.

The boat was slowing being crushed; he listened – trying to hear over the sound of the breaking fiberglass and wood hull. He heard none.

Hovering in mid-air, beams of green energy fired from his eyes and hit the monster on the arm just above where it was holding the ship. He fired again. A tentacle flailed at him, but he was just out of reach. The third hit, forced the monster to drop the boat.

Nearly exhausted from the out-put of energy, Dynamo flew down and caught the damaged craft before it could hit the water. Again, he turned and flew as fast as the craft would allow him back toward the safety of land. But, this time, the monster was giving chase.

“Attention – unknown superhero.” Came over his radio. “This is Coast Guard Cutter Spencer. If you receive this transmission, please respond.”

Putting the boat on the shore, Dynamo tried activating the communicator. “This is Dynamo, Coast Guard Cutter. What can I do for you?”

“Dynamo?” Who does this guy think he is? The radio operator thought to himself. “We are tracking the creature and it’s moving very fast toward the shore. Can you intercept?”

“Understood, there might be two men still alive in this boat. Can you please call a medic to look in on them? I will stop the creature. Dynamo out.” He scanned the horizon, then leapt back into the air.

As the creature neared the shore, it was making a larger leading wave. There would seem to be only one way to do this. He flew up, then paused at the apex of his flight before diving into the water.

Effectively blind, Dynamo felt the monster before he saw it. The creature was heavy, its weight only multiplied by the water around it. He felt one tentacle wrap around his body and one around his legs. He pulled on the arm that was trying to squeeze his chest, and after a fight, he felt the arm pull away from the monster’s body.

In pain, it threw him out of the water and back into the air. From here, he could see a pool of black-looking blood in the water. The creature’s head came out of the water again and slapped at Dynamo. Knocking him higher into the air.

Dynamo mentally felt himself take a deep breath before he dove back into the creature. He struck it just under a chitinous plate on its forehead. The monster reeled with the blow and Dynamo felt the cartilage just under its skin shatter. The monster struck at him again, but this time, the Atomic Man grabbed the tentacle and flew higher into the air, pulling the monster with him.

“Holy crap! Are you getting this?” The camera man shouted to his producer back in Atlanta.

“Yes! Can you get any closer?” Came the reply. Barry James sat at his control desk at CNN and all he could see was the ratings sky-rocketing in his head. “Someone – looking like the Golden Age Dynamo was fighting a giant sea monster off the coast of Boston.

“Closer?” The pilot said. “Barry, there’s a man flying around with a giant squid up there. We can’t just much closer.”

“Mike, I can’t get the shot from here. We need to get in closer so I can a tight shot of his face.” Ed Coute was dreaming of the Pulitzer he was going to be win with this. “Don’t tell me you’re ready to quit.” He said pushing the pilot.

Mike Harris had been an Army helicopter pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, they were nicknamed the Night Stalkers. He had flown in some of the most dangerous conditions imaginable. Coute was calling him out, reminding him of the Night Stalker motto ... ‘Night Stalkers don’t quit.’ He took one look back, then pushed on the cyclic down and to the left, “Strap yourself in, if that guy decides to come in our direction; we won’t be able to get out of his way.”

“Yeah. Right.” The producer said, “Stay safe; but get the shot. We’re breaking into programming to go live on this. Live in 4, 3, 2 ...”

Everywhere, people were glued to their televisions as the camera caught the end of the battle between the unknown superhero and the giant squid.

Once Dynamo had the beast in the air, the fight was mostly over. It wasn’t able to last long out of the water and soon suffocated, becoming 50 tons of deadweight.

“Dynamo, this is Spencer. You can follow us to the Air Station at Cape Cod and drop that ... thing off.” Dynamo looked down and saw the boat turn west, he followed until he saw the base – then he flew ahead.

“Jesus, that’s a lot of calamari.” The Chief said as Dynamo approached. “This is Chief Watkins at Cape Cod Air Station, Dynamo. Put that on runway three, we have people coming to look at it.”

“Understood.” He replied.

“Joey, we’re going to need a couple tons of ice to keep that from smelling up my Air Station. See what you can do about that.” He said to a young Seaman standing nearby. Then he walked out to meet Dynamo.

“This is not something you see everyday.” He said to the superhero. “I’m Chief Watkins.” He said extending a warn and sun-tanned hand to Dynamo.

“I’m Dynamo. You just want this ... here?” He asked.

“Yeah. It’s the best we can do on short notice. I wanted to let you know that we found the boat you brought ashore, one of the hands was alive; the other didn’t make it.”

Dynamo nodded, understanding the situation. “That’s regrettable.” He replied. “Chief, I have someplace to be; if you’re ready to have this moved, and still need me, I’ll keep the channel open for you.”

The Chief nodded. “Sure, sure. How else will we move this thing. Good work out there today, son.” He said.

With a nod, Dynamo launched himself into the air, flying past the news helicopters that were now gathering in the air. “I’m late.” He said to himself as he flew toward The Pier.

Somewhere, deep under the Atlantic Ocean.
It was cold and dark when the first eggs began to hatch. They crawled out, tentacles searching for something, anything that might be their mother. But, they found nothing. There was a little food, mostly in the form of their hatching brothers and sisters. It ate, but it did not understand. It was cold and dark and alone. It listened, for sounds or calls, anything that might be its mother.

Dark eyes searched the hatchery, but they found nothing. It was cold and dark and it was alone. But, it had much food and lots of room to grow ...