Dynamo

Jordan Allen

   Jordan Allen grew up in the poorest family in the poorest town

in backwoods Georgia.

   There was never enough money, and the family of six children

often went without. When the TV broke, it took three years of saving before the Allens could afford a replacement—a used black- and-white set, at that.

   The kids wore each other’s hand-me-downs, and it seemed

like Jordan’s mama spent every evening at the sewing table resizing or patching worn clothes. Classmates from families better off than hers teased Jordan unmercifully about her ragged clothes.

As soon as Jordan graduated from high school, she left that two-bit town for the big city lights of Atlanta. Walking home from her job one night, Jordan was accosted by a knife-wielding mugger. The young woman was almost as surprised as her attacker when a bolt of lightning erupted from her hands to blast him across the street. Panicked, Jordan quit her job and went back home, where she confided in her younger brother, Billy. After thinking it over, Billy told Jordan that her powers could make them rich—if she played her cards right.

       While Jordan secretly practiced using her lightning powers, Billy designed a costume and name for her: Dynamo. Returning to Atlanta, Dynamo began to perform rescues and other acts of heroism. Operating under precise instructions from Billy, Dynamo timed her heroic endeavors to attract maximum public attention and TV

time. She always took time out for interviews, appeared at key local charity events and even dated some of Atlanta’s most eli- gible high-profile bachelors.

  Soon Dynamo created a sensation wherever she went. That

was when Billy approached an Atlanta soft-drink company about the first-ever celebrity endorsement by a super-hero.

  The one-commercial deal earned the siblings millions of dol-

lars as newspaper columnists and heroes around the nation erupted in howls of outrage.

  Peregrine Aircraft took note of the young Southern hero-ce-

lebrity, and when the furor died down the aerospace corporation approached Dynamo about coming to work for the company. Officially, she would be a special consultant on security matters, but her main duty would be public relations—appearing at com- pany events, signing autographs for tour groups, etc.

  Billy drove a hard bargain, but in the end Dynamo signed on

as Peregrine Aircraft’s newest—and probably best-known—em- ployee.