Dynamite's Diary - 29th October 2021

Today was so strange! I never thought anything like this would happen in my life.

It started when Dad had come home from a meeting he'd had with Marshall at his DBX arena. He was just about to settle down in front of the TV when he suddenly looked concerned and checked his pockets. It was the same as usually happens when he's forgotten something.

"Great!" he snapped. "My wallet's missing again and my favorite TV show starts in two minutes time! How am I supposed to get it back by then?!"

"Can't you just watch a repeat another time?"

"NO! It's only on for tonight!" He was super agitated about the whole business.

"When did you last have it then?"

"At the arena of course!" He then calmed down a bit, but was still worried. "Well, the basement to be more specific."

So of course I had to be the one to fetch it back for him. Typical. Good thing I have my own wallet on handy at all times. You never know when there's a nice snack or video game to buy. Or you need to get train tickets for the city.

The train ride didn't take too long - only about five minutes or so. It was also really easy to locate the arena given the giant model of Marshall's sunglasses near the top. It was slightly harder to find the entrance to the arena's basement, but eventually I did.

I was able to recognise Dad's wallet instantly upon entering. It was the shabby black one with the doodles and tears on it laying on the ground. I decided to text Dad just to let him know that it was safe with me, though I did have to hurry it. Besides, I was planning to meet up with Steve afterwards in order to ask him about basketball tryouts.

However, the second I sent that text off, a lazer came the hell out of nowhere and completely fried my phone. And that's when I noticed them. A whole crowd of droids coming towards me. Some just seemed like the lumbering types, but others had lazer guns attached to their faces. Just brilliant. What were THEY of all things doing here?

I wasn't the only person being hunted by them though. Just behind me, I noticed Marshall on his own phone, clearly in a hurry himself.

"Okay, so, it seems like I'll be late for our second meet-up tonight. You see, I'm currently having to deal with-"

He never got to finish his sentence as one of the droids fired a lazer from its nozzle and it shot the phone right out of his hands. Shattered completely in mid-air too.

"Oh great," he groaned. "This is just gonna be one of those days, isn't it?"

It was certainly going to one for me, I can admit that. Either Marshall and I would have to work together to get ourselves out of this mess, or we'd be dead meat.

I was pretty much stuck on what to do. On the one hand, that whole co-host fiasco was still on my mind. But on the other, it seemed that him and Dad had genuinely made up. I still had no idea how, since Dad didn't tell me, but the results spoke for themselves. Honestly, I didn't know whether it would upset Dad more if I chose to get revenge for the co-host business or not.

Besides, Dad was able to let go of that whole business with his deadbeat good-for-nothing father. And that guy had nearly ruined his life, rather than just his summer break. Maybe he'd want me to follow his example in this instance?

Ultimately, I decided to just give Marshall the benefit of the doubt and assume that he really was sorry about what happened during the summer and that was why he and Dad were buddies again. I needed to be quick about it though.

"Um, over here, sir!"

He turned round, surprised to see me once again.

"Okay, so in case you're wondering, yes, I did try and attack you the last time we met." I was getting glimpes of the advancing droids the whole time I spoke. "But if we're gonna make it out of here alive, I guess we're gonna have team up."

He still seemed confused by what I was saying. Fortunately, I noticed a baseball bat that just happened to be strapped to the wall. "Hey, there's a bat up there you can use! Maybe use it on the droids that don't have the lazers?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen you wield a bat like a pro before." I was referencing a really awkward confrontation he had with Wiz once, but I didn't bring that part up. "Surely you'll be able to do the same here? Meanwhile, I'll use all the explosives you've got stored here to get rid of the lazer-shooting ones in the distance. Got it?"

Marshall gave me this big grin. "Sure, why not?"

"It's a deal then!" I said as we exchanged high-fives and got down to business.

It worked! Those droids didn't stand a chance! Marshall was bashing the lumbering ones' heads in left and right and I was blowing the lazer-shooting ones up by the twenties. I never really thought of Marshall as the fighting type himself, but given his performance today, I reckon he's got what it takes. Obviously Dad's still the top fighter out there by far, but Marshall was good enough.

For the remaining droids without the lazers, I simply kicked them down and made sure to stomp them into scrap metal. It took a bit of time - if Dad was here, he probably would have finished them off in seconds - but eventually they were down for the count and unlikely to be causing us any more trouble in the future.

When we finally made it out of the basement, you'll never guess who were waiting for us! I shouldn't have been surprised about Dad being there, since Marshall was phoning him, but Lottie was there too! As it turns out, I'd actually sent my text to her by mistake. That's what happens when you're in a hurry and just quickly go through contacts before sending messages through.

Dad was super happy when he saw us - he was actually crying when he came over and babbling on how how relieved he was that Marshall and I were safe. I will say one thing though - when he's in this particular mood, his hugs HURT. It felt like three of my ribs were getting crushed.

But the biggest surprise of the day came from Lottie. Her jaw dropped super low down at first, but then this massive smile came over her face. And then I realised who she was actually looking at. Marshall.

"RINGMASTER!!!" she squealed as she rang over to him. She was all over him - asking for his autographs, his phone number, his email, everything. He actually seemed rather shocked at first but eventually he did his twinkle smile and gave her the autograph.

It was really surprising. And also super gross if you ask me. Seriously, why does Lottie need to go overboard with this kind of stuff?

After she was done fangirling and squeeing, Marshall turned in my direction and gave me two thumbs up, just like he'd done with Dad during that family reunion of his. "Great job back there. How do you even do that?"

"I guess it just runs in our family," I casually replied, taking note of the fact that Dad was nearby. "So, what were those droids doing there in the first place?"

"Oh," he replied awkwardly. "So um, I asked Wiz if he could create a bunch of them. You know, so they could serve as robot servants. Keep the basement clean. But I guess I forgot that he's got a poor track record of keeping them from going crazy." He and Dad chuckled together over this.

I struggled to think of what to say next, but eventually I said it.

"Oh, and um, well done for patching things up with Dad here."

"I mean, what else can I say? Your dad's got a mean hook, I'm telling you."

It took a couple of seconds for that to sink in. Dad just smirked and nodded his head with his arms crossed. "Oh, right," I chuckled sheepishly.

"It was fine! No harm done."

"You bet there wasn't!" Dad chimed in. "Besides, it was only a night at the hospital. You didn't have to spend a week there like you did after the Mechagoose incident!"

Well, seems like I didn't have to pursue revenge after all. That's right, you DON'T ditch my Dad by the wayside period. It does make me wonder what this means for Marshall and Jocelyn though. I hope she's alright. Again, as I said, she probably needs the job considering how much she hates her internship at the moment.

"You know," I finally spurted out. "I have to admit. You're actually a pretty alright guy. I mean, you did help Dad out with the whole father search. Plus, those shades of yours are pretty rockin'."

"You bet they are! Cost about a thousand dollars to get."

I still made sure to point a finger in his direction up close, just to make my next point clear.

"But you better not do anything bad to my Dad next time, okay! I'll be keeping my eye on you!"

Dad was blushing the whole time. "Dynah, please!" Lottie looked ridiculously offended as well.

Marshall just chuckled awkwardly. "Okay, okay, if you say so."

Marshall's got a big Halloween event planned this Sunday, so I'll probably attend that along with Dad. Just to show that I'm putting my grudge behind me. Might as well. Still need to find a way to balance it with my annual trick-or-treating rounds though. I ALWAYS have to do that every year.

Oh, and I'll definitely need a new phone as well. I'm sure I can pony up most of the money to get one, but it better be an exact copy of the broken one. I mean, that scrap metal left behind from the droids should be of an expensive type right? Bet it sells for a shit-ton of money.

Dynamite's Diary - 23rd October 2021

I got to ask Eliza and Marlene about the whole nickname business today. We were enjoying some milkshakes together with Gemma and Lottie and I thought it would be a good time to bring it up. They were rather surprised by the idea, but I feel like I got my point forward.

"I mean, your uncles use nicknames and my dad decided to name me after a weapon like he was. Surely we should be able to do the same with you here?"

Marlene wasn't so keen on the idea. To be fair, I really wasn't able to come up with a good nickname. I thought of Blue and Indigo as a reference to her outfit, but she rightfully said no.

Eliza was next. "Okay, so what should your nickname be? Hmm..."

That's when I noticed her tub of Smarties in her pocket again. Well, they're not the Smarties I'm familiar with. Apparently there's a British candy with the same name, and for some reason Eliza's able to get a hold of them.

"How about...well, Smartie?"

"Smartie?!" She almost spluttered on her milkshake.

"Hey, you like Smarties. And you're clearly a smart girl. Why not?"

"Um..." she hesitated for a bit. "I guess so."

So Smartie it is! And no, I wasn't just flattering her with the "smart girl" comment. I've seen the marks she's received in her text books and they are top notch. Wish I could do just as well as her in English and History.

"Hey, you better come up with a nickname for me as well if she's getting one!" Lottie chimed in soon afterwards. "Y'know, something cute or flashy."

"Alright then," I sighed. "You want Princess?"

She was so perky right then. "Sure, why not?"

I was actually being sarcastic when I offered that nickname, but hey, as long as she's okay with it.

"I'll be fine with my own name, thank you very much," was Gemma's response to the whole thing.

So now we've got Dynamite, Gemma, Marlene, Smartie and Princess. The five gal pals. One with a crazy dad, two with crazy uncles and I'm still curious about the families of the remaining two. Actually, I've met Gemma and Lottie's families before, but I've never heard of them containing any maniacs of any kind.

Hmmm, but what if they did? ;)

Dynamite's Diary - 21st October 2021

Well, I've been spending time at Mom's place again. Nothing that interesting happened, but I guess things went okay. She was pretty miffed about what happened two weeks ago when I ran off to Dad's without telling her first, but it seems that she let me off the hook for once. Guess I don't have to worry about being banned from games for a month for now. X)

You'd think that all that school talk about me and my internet celebrity dad would have died down this week, but apparently not. People are still asking me all about it. Well, there goes my chance of passing off as a "normal" student, but I don't mind at all. Besides, it's better to be noticed than just outright ignored, right?

Sure, you get the odd person bitching and moaning about how they didn't like how a certain episode went down and that Goku CLEARLY should have won against Superman, but for the most part, most of my classmates are pretty chuffed for my sake. Plus, I'm secretly glad that nobody's said anything insulting about my dad so far despite his...various quirks.

There's one slight problem though. A certain problem that gave me a vicious stink eye as I made my exit out of the canteen today when trying to escape being crushed by hordes of students.

That problem would be Kinsey Fitchhirst.

Last week, Kinsey bought yet another ridiculously expensive designer handbag and was all set to brag about it. She's always the talk of the school - she's THE most popular girl and she knows it. You can always rely on her to be the center of attention everywhere she goes.

But she wasn't this time. Because everyone was so focused on me and my dad instead.

I usually try and stay away from the popular crowd and goings on with my school's social scene, but now it's gonna be extra hard given that I "upstaged" her. At least Lottie's also a member of the popular crowd - she could possibly give out some bribes to the other cool kids in order to keep me safe.

Sorry, I mean, keep them safe. I'm not staying away from them because I'm worried that I'll be bullied. I'm worried that I'll just flip out like my dad does and then get expelled. I already had to deal with that sort of thing at my previous school with regard to Mel Crombey and the TNT incident, and I don't want to make the same mistake again.

It turns out that Marlene's been getting a lot of attention as well - around the same time word about my dad and I got out, word about her being Marshall's niece got out too. She's really not ready for that sort of attention though. Last time we talked with one another, she was hiding in one of the toilet cubicles so that she wouldn't be surrounded by the large crowds.

Eliza bragged a little bit about the whole situation. "Must be pretty hard to have some famous relatives! At least I can get around school without worrying about being crushed by screaming fans or whatever!"

"Didn't you say on Sunday that you recognized one of those people though?"

She got pretty nervous at that point. "Um, maybe?"

It was my turn to smirk about the whole situation. "'Fess up, you got a famous uncle or dad too or whatever?" I paused for a bit. "Is it Wiz?"

"What, the guy in the labcoat?"

"That's the one!"

"I mean...he looked like my uncle. The one who caused my lunchbox to explode the first week of school. I guess."

First Marlene, and now Eliza! You find out some crazy things about people's families at times. Maybe we should start a little trio ourselves? The relatives of the Death Battle hosts! Marlene and Eliza will need some cool nicknames though.

Hey, don't get the wrong idea! This does not mean I'm leaving Gemma and Lottie out in the cold at all! They are my childhood friends after all. In fact, who needs a trio? A group of five sounds even cooler!

Now I just need to find out if Gemma and Lottie have any surprise relatives...

Dynamite's Diary - 17th October 2021

I am fucking shocked. I'm still reeling from what happened last week. Maybe that's why I haven't thought about writing for a while.

It started when I woke up one hour later than I usually do. Turns out that my alarm clock wasn't working properly that time. And to make things worst, Dad had already left the house.

I was thinking about rushing, but then I thought no. After all, he starts his show around 12. It would only be a problem if he broke down whilst the show was happening. At least that's how it seemed to me.

So I took my time. I cleaned my teeth and face, I had my breakfast cereal, I put my clothes on and I sorted out my hair. Two pigtails as normal. Then I left the house, making sure to lock it as I left.

There were some train delays, which were annoying, but eventually I caught one at half eleven. Finally I was able to make it to the lab, five minutes past twelve. A bit late, but not too bad. All I needed to do was locate the presentation room.

I found it alright. It wasn't too hard to track down. I noticed that the door was slightly open. Okay then, that's good. I don't have to burst in and interrupt them. I can just get a glimpse of what was going on and it would be fine. I decided to take a peek...

...And Dad wasn't there. Instead it was Jocelyn, building a tower out of Rubix cubes.

"Where the hell's Dad?!" I spluttered, and she jumped a bit before accidentally knocking the tower down.

"Mind out! I was just close to completing that!"

"Where's Dad?!"

"They've gone off somewhere with Ringmaster. I mean, how am I supposed to know? They only told me they were going out."

Great, just great. So much for that plan. So now I had to find wherever he was in so I could be there in case he snapped.

"Okay, thanks, bye!" I said before dashing off again.

I will say that I watched the video the next day - turns out that Marshall had supposedly found out where Dad's own father was. Didn't quite work out for him though. At least Wiz knew that Randy Savage wasn't the one. Besides, he's just too perfect to truly be my granddad, given what I've heard about him.

But enough diversions. I was both irritated by the sudden change in plans and worried sick about where Dad could be. For the next few hours, I was just running around the city, not stopping for anything,

Well, okay, I did stop to have a hotdog and lemonade at one point. You definitely need to eat if you're going to spend the whole day chasing after someone. Even if it does waste a bit of time.

I even called up my mates to see if they could help. They did come over, but they didn't really understand. Lottie accused me of overreacting and claimed that Dad was going to be fine. Eliza had no idea what the deal was. Marlene was nervously telling me not to worry. Even Gemma of all people was baffled.

"Dynah, please! You're gonna make yourself ill!" It was one of the few times in which she's snapped out.

But I didn't care. I just wanted to make sure Dad was safe.

I tried looking around the alleyways. I tried looking around the nearby park. I even tried going back to the lab afterwards just to see if he'd returned. But no luck.

There was only one thing left to do. Go into the nearby woods and see if he'd turn up there. I decided to head off there.

"Dynah, do NOT hurt yourself!" Gemma warned. She said something else afterwards, but I couldn't hear her properly because I was too far away.

Looking back at it all, I was becoming too much like Dad myself. Getting all obsessive, brushing everyone else off, not paying attention to the time, just becoming really bitter and irritable in general. But then again, you'd probably be the same if someone you cared about was in trouble, right?

It was coming up to night time by the time I made it into the forest. At this point, I was only thinking about Dad. Thinking that he was probably hurt and suffering a meltdown that nobody else would know how to solve.

I even found myself muttering to myself.

"One. Last. Time. Where is my father?"

My thoughts though were interrupted by a loud shotgun blast at that point. Somebody was yelling nearby, which was enough to grab my attention. I glanced out from behind a nearby tree just to see what was going on.

There was Dad alright, with Wiz and Marshall next to him. There was also an older woman with a shotgun standing in front of Dad as he was getting himself off the ground. I was pretty sure I recognised her from somewhere.

And then it hit me. OF COURSE I recognised her. Dad had photos of her throughout the house. I'd seen those photos of her so many times and he'd told me about them every time I did. His mother and my grandma.

And now for the first time, I was actually seeing Grandma in person.

WHAT?!?!

I heard what Dad said alright. "Mama?!"

And then they just started hugging each other whilst his voice went all wobbly. "I...I thought Dad was here..."

I didn't catch what Grandma said next, because I briefly shut down from shock.

GRANDMA. GRANDMA WAS HERE.

For the majority of my life, I just assumed that Grandma was dead. Every time she got brought up in our household, Dad would go on about how he missed her and that he lost her to some ghost in the barn. He told me how he wished that she'd come back and that things weren't the same without her.

But here she was, alive and well, right in the middle of the woods. Only some walking distance away from where Dad lived. HOW?! It was enough to make my brain spin around.

Dad spoke again. It was that tone of voice he gets whenever he's crying, so that grabbed my attention alright. "I guess...you can't always get what you want."

I was thinking about going over to comfort him, but Grandma got there first. "But you just might find what you need."

I was able to make out a smile on Dad's face at that point, which was absolutely adorable. I decided ultimately it was best to just leave them be. She was managing the situation well. Probably better than I could have done. And he'd got two friends with him, so that was also a nice bonus. Heck, even Marshall seemed to be showing support with that thumbs up gesture. Maybe he's not as bad as I thought he was.

Grandma ended up yelling something else out, but again, my mind was just buzzing. Both from the relief that Dad was okay and the shock that Grandma was there in the first place.

Dad and his friends all started rushing off, Dad laughing and cheering the whole time. I bit my wrist to make sure I wasn't dreaming, before attempting to follow them myself.

When I tried to though, I caught something out of the corner of my eye and turned round.

It was a guy in a red set of armor and helmet with grey hints holding a shotgun. Now here was someone I recognised instantly. I'd already mentioned Sarge in one of my previous diary entries, but I honestly did not expect him to turn up here. And considering how I was already stunned from noticing Grandma, this was just one surprise after another.

"That boy sounds familiar..." he was saying to himself, before making some odd exclamation and asking "Do I have a...son?"

I attempted to rush towards him, planning to tell him the truth, but I noticed my vision go red itself.

The next thing I knew, I was being carried through the woods by Lottie and Eliza, with Gemma carrying a flashlight and Marlene panicking like crazy.

"Th-that's not how you're supposed to deal with someone who's fainted! Please! Put her down!"

Lottie's usually pretty stubborn but she put me down anyway. I was able to get up fine despite still feeling weird after what happen.

"Grandma..." was all I was able to splutter out.

Eliza was pretty shaken up too. "I swear one of those guys was-"

"Was who?"

"My, um, it's kinda hard to say."

We decided to just get going back. Eventually, I was able to get back to Dad's place.

He was dancing and spinning around in the middle of the room to some old Rolling Stones records with the biggest smile on his face. Nothing like how he was yesterday. It was as if an impostor had taken his place for a whole week and he'd finally driven them out.

"Dad! You okay?"

He giggled a bit in response and nodded.

I started spluttering out words. "Your own dad, he, he-"

"Nah sweetheart, it doesn't matter."

Well, it was good to see him well again, even if he wasn't quite successful in tracking down his dad. The important thing was that he was happy. I left him be as I went to get the dinner started. That night afterwards, I went to bed earlier than usual.

So that was Sunday. Anyway, if you want to know what happened this week, it seems everyone at school must have watched that video. And it seems that unexpected family reunion made it into the video too. And it seems everyone somehow find out that I was related to him. Because I was pretty much DOGPILED when I came in on Monday.

"OMG, your dad's super famous!"

"How does it feel that you've got a super famous dad on the internet?!"

"Your grandma is SUPER COOL. Like, for real."

"Do you want me to tell your dad for you who his own dad is? I've watched previous episodes so I've got a clear idea!"

All sorts of those questions. And would you believe it, it was all the talk at school. Everyone was asking me about it. EVERY SINGLE DAY. That's pretty much the main highlight of this week. It was super hectic and there were times in which I actually had to hide in order to not get crushed by huge crowds of excited classmates.

I'm just curious about how Grandma's alive. I'll need to ask Dad about that at some point. He might be able to meet up with her next time and find out the truth from her. At least we know where she lives now, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Either way, Dad's feeling a LOT better now. And he's gained back his appetite, so he's back to eating squirrel burgers and enchiladas again. Spending time with him this week, you could really tell that he's not angsting anymore for now. Grandma was right. He really didn't need his own dad after all. Just people who would actually appreciate him. And he's got me as well, I mean, what else could he possibly ask for? XD

Now all that's left for me to do is just re-evaluate my family and life in general...

Dynamite's Diary - 9th October 2021

Dad's been so on edge this week. I've never witnessed him like this before, and believe me, I've witnessed PLENTY of his meltdowns.

For instance, I called him up on Monday just to ask if I'd left my iPod at his place, since I couldn't find it anyway while at Mom's or at school. Yeah, being a suitcase kid with two divorced parents is pretty awkward stuff, especially if you swap houses weekly. He was just grumbling the whole time, and not even in a "you should remember this stuff yourself" sort of way. More like he was sleep deprived or something like that.

Then on Wednesday, I texted him just to check how he was getting on and he only responded with "Who cares?". He didn't even use emojis like he usually does. The same thing happened when I texted him on Thursday.

So I had to do it. I actually came over to his place on Friday just to see how he was doing and to make sure that he didn't implode or anything. I didn't even tell Mom where I was going - I just said I was going for a sleepover with friends and dashed off.

Dad was really not in a good state. He was losing his appetite, he just sat in silence, it was awful to watch. I really had no clue on how to lift his spirits up. I tried suggesting Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but he only seemed to want to watch the walls. I asked him what he wanted for dinner and he didn't even want to eat anything. He only wanted to drink the occasional can of beer. He has not been this bad since the time Marshall replaced him with Jocelyn as his DBX co-host, and now looking back at it, his breakdown then was actually pretty tame compared to this one.

There's one silver lining though, and that's that I was able to find out what was going on, even if he only spurted it out in short sentence fragments. He's been thinking about his father yet again, and he's getting more desperate about it. Just as I suspected. He can't make up his mind as to whether he genuinely wants to patch things up with him or whether he just wants to bash his head out with a rock. Or even both.

If Dad carries on like this on Sunday, I don't know how things will sort themselves out. He and Wiz are doing a milestone episode for their web series, and I'm worried that his mood might get in the way of it. I really don't want him to break down crying on camera like he's done before, especially if he's in this much of a state.

I have an idea on what I'll do. Tomorrow, I'll head over to the studio with him and wait backstage, just in case something happens. Then if he does have a breakdown, I'll be there to help him out. Simple, right? Besides, I've always wanted a bit of internet fame myself and maybe appearing on screen could help me out there...

Urgh! I sound so selfish saying it like that. No, forget about internet fame, the important thing is making sure that Dad's okay. Making sure that he snaps out of his bad mood and that he mentally recovers. Sounds good enough. Now I just need to be sure that I get up on time tomorrow...

Dynamite's Diary - 2nd October 2021

Lottie's got yet another new phone this week! She already bought one last week, so I assume either the last one broke or she's still got that weird opinion that you need different phones for different stuff. Who knows? Not me, I can tell you.

She was all super proud of it, as if it was some great achievement or something like that. "It even has a new ringtone!" she told us as she showed it off.

Needless to say, she was somewhat miffed when Gemma and I didn't give her the applause that she expected and simply looked at it.

In other news, Dad's being acting kinda strange recently. I'm not sure what it is because he goes all quiet whenever I try to ask him about it. It's really weird, because he seemed fine for the past few days and nothing seemed to be bothering him at all. I never uttered a word about my meeting with Jocelyn last week, so I'm sure it's nothing to do with that. Unless somehow word got to him that we had that conversation in the first place. I hope not.

I will say though that if this is anything to do with his dad again, there's really nothing I can do. I already did my research on the whole subject - I don't know how to follow on from it. I guess I could track down the suspects I mentioned last time I brought it up, but it's gonna be super hard to do so.

On the bright side, it's October, so I'm planning extra hard to make my Halloween costume look super duper scary this year. I always start costume planning at the beginning of the month - it's all a mad rush if you leave it to later. Last year I spooked Lottie and even Gemma out with my Brundlefly outfit, so I want to achieve the same effect again this year.

Otherwise, just another regular week with nothing much happening. School work and the likes as usual. Oh, and catching up with my martial arts training. Can't forget that. Really hope next week has a bit more excitement to it.