Background: Pete Webster has never been able to do the right thing. In school he was never as bright as his kid brother, Michael. He tried to study more, but when the going got too rough, Pete took to cheating. Unfortunately he wasn't very good at it. Pete never held it against his brother; hey, the kid was a genius, but he sure did wish that some of those smarts would have ended up in his head too. Over the years, not much changed in Pete's life -- he always started out with good intentions, but when the easier way came along (whether it was legal or not) he just couldn't resist taking the shortcut. While Michael received an appointment to Annapolis and went on to a career as an officer in the Navy, Pete drifted from one job to another, never sticking with anything very long, and was always involved in something illicit. 

One day, while driving to meet his fence about unloading some stuff, he got stuck in traffic on the freeway. Thinking he might be able to sneak around it if he could just get off the main road, he cut down the nearest on ramp, and right into the front of an oncoming truck. His car was thrown into a power pole, and live electrical wires fell across Pete's car. Groggy from the accident, he started to step out of the car, and was electrocuted.

He recovered consciousness just as the first policeman arrived. When Pete opened his eyes and saw a cop, he thought of the hot VCRs in his trunk and panicked! Just then, a huge arc of electricity leapt out from Pete's hand and threw the officer away! Pete was just as startled as the patrolman, but the cop's partner didn't see it that way and Pete was lucky to get away with his life.

Wanted for attacking a police officer, Pete knew he should turn himself in and come clean. It was an accident, right? But in the back of his mind he kept seeing all those famous supervillains from the news. With superpowers he'd sure be able to get somewhere. He could zoom around town in a bright costume and a flashy car, picking off expensive treasures to stockpile in his Fortress of Solemnitude. What would it hurt to knock over just one bank? He'd wear a mask. Nobody would ever know it was him. This was his big chance!
 

"Peter M. Webster, also known as Dynamo, I-"
"Actually, Your Honor, it's 'The Dynamo'. Y'see I thought it sounded more-"
"Quiet!"
"Sorry, Ma'am."
"You are hereby sentenced to serve not less than fifteen years in Stronghold Federal Prison in New Mexico, or in another such facility designated for the incarceration of paranormal offenders which the state may select."
"Ah, what?"
"Baliff, remove the defendant."
"Uh, I think I must have heard wrong, I thought you said fifteen YEARS!" (seizes court-appointed defense attourney by the head)...

 
Stronghold. Even the name was foreboding. The place itself was even worse. Built at a secret location in the New Mexico desert, the environment was as close to Hell-on-Earth as anyone could make. Pete was taken under heavy guard from the military transport helecopter while attack choppers hovered overhead in case of trouble. Pete couldn't believe it was all just for him. As they lead him into the elevator, and began the descent into the deep, secure facility, Pete realized that the hellish desert above was the last real landscape he would see for a long, long, long time.

He wished they'd let him go back and look at it again.

Nobody got a weekend furlough from Stronghold, and nobody ever, ever escaped. Stronghold was Pete's universe. He soon came to appreciate the little bit of liberty he enjoyed as a low-risk inmate -- television priviledges, the small library, and the company of other inmates during social periods. Down on the high-security level, the inmates were too dangerous to even be permitted out of their cells. At the deepest level, your cell was your universe.

Pete only once considered trying to escape. After having been incarcerated for five years, and knowing he wouldn't be eligible for parole for another three, Pete found out that Michael had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He made an appeal to be allowed to visit his brother in the hospital, willing to allow any precautions the government wanted, but was turned down. Michael died a month later.

Three years later, Pete finally was granted parole. Having little in the way of useful skills, Pete carried a clipping from a magazine he had stumbled across in the library -- a small article about an odd new company starting up in San Francisco, called Armitage Investigations.

Tactics/Powers: As he understands it, Pete's body generates an electrical field which he can direct into bolts of lightning. His electrically supercharged muscles make him very strong, though not superhumanly so, and allow him to run at speeds approaching thirty miles per hour. The unusual electrical activity of his brain renders him resistant to mental attacks, but since he has never been exposed to such things, he is unaware of this particular trait. He knows how to handle himself in a fistfight.

Though not really very smart, Pete has an amazing auditory memory and a facility with codes and patterns which allows him to pick up languages at an astonishing rate. However, he would be the last person to say he was any good at anything.

Personality: Simply put, Pete has always been one step behind; the kind of guy who is always in trouble for something stupid. Nothing he ever tried really worked out very well, including his brief (one-shot) career as a supervillain. He really has no idea what he is going to do now, but knows for damn sure he doesn't want to go back to Stronghold again. He never thinks very far ahead. His Moral Code can be summed up thus: Never do anything to anyone who can get you beat up; If you're gonna steal, do it from a big company that can afford it; And you shouldn't hit ladies cuz it ain't right, less of course they hit you first.

Lifestyle:  Pete has never been very good with money, and usually was broke just days after getting paid for a job. He likes burgers and beer, a good game of pool, and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. He loves to do codes and puzzles, and often has a paperback book of logic problems with him, though he would never show it to anyone, since "they might expect me to be smart or somethin', but I ain't. I'm just okay at this one thing, y'know?"

When he shows up on the doorstep of Armitage Incorporated, Pete has nothing but the clothes on his back.

Appearance: Pete is 6'2", solidly built, with short black hair, dark brown eyes and a square chin. He's on the high side of average in looks, but doesn't take much advantage of what he has. Normally dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and unshaven for several days, Pete looks like someone who'd be right at home shooting pool in a sleazy roadside dive. When dressed in nice clothes, he looks like someone who'd be right at home shooting pool in a sleazy roadside dive, except for those nice clothes.

His voice is deep and brusque, with a scratchy quality to it exacerbated by his smoking. Tanned and muscular, with a definite sense of dangerousness about him, Pete moves slowly and definitively. On his right upper arm is a tatoo of Tinkerbell. ("What? You got somethin' against Tink, there? Huh? Do ya?")