All of the following may or may not be fictional. But probably not.

Everyone's heard the infamous story of "Dan" being in a bag in Nadrew's basement, and this has been the accepted explanation until today, when my overactive brain assembled a string of clues!

According to ancient parchment scrolls and local legend, two men known as Dan and Tom set out to create a MUD during the medeival era (AKA 1994), which eventually evolved into a gaming platform that they distributed free of charge out of the goodness of their hearts. They gave this platform a cute name that shortened to the acronym DUNG, and what seemed as a grassroots effort between two people to create their dream marked the beginning of one of history's greatest cover ups!

What few people know (actually, just me) is that DUNG was really only founded by one person, Don Tom, an international mafia boss with unlimited resources and unlimited reach. Not wanting to draw federal attention to his little online front business, he changed his title to the name "Dan" and created the existance of a second person, thereby creating "Dantom". Tom hired many online criminals in his stint as a programmer:

Mike (the) H(ammer), prefers to use melee weapons such as bats and pipes. Having beaten his victims beyond recognition, they could only be indentified by dental records.

Lummox JR, the hulking assassin with a high IQ. He can knock anyone off their high horse from thousands of miles away.

Deadron, a professional hitman with the precision of a surgeon. He could shoot you from Stuttgart and still create the effect of suicide.

Crispy, prefers incendiary devices, always overdoes it. He'll take out a short bus with an AMRAM missile and will napalm the area just to make sure.

Wizkidd0123, the computer tech of the group. He takes care of police records, security systems, and other cyber-related etceteras.

Nadrew, the one made out to be the patsy behind "Dan"'s disappearance, but has many connections to provide the crew with whatever they need. Last seen posing as a Marine and disappeared with a harrier jet.

Shadowdarke, a deadly ninja, his name being an obvious reference to what he wears and what he does. Trained meticulously by a Cantonese muay thai sensei, and had to register anything attached to his person as a lethal weapon (yes, even -THAT-).

Gughunter, a mercenary hired by Don Tom to rid him of the constant nuisance caused by the Gugs, a large rebel force determined to shut down Don Tom's activities once and for all.

DUNG served their purposes for awhile, until the feds started sniffing around in the midwest, upon which time Don Tom moved the entire operation to the west coast, and also changing the name of his front organization to BYOND, another cute acronym designed to throw off the federal inspectors. However, in his haste, he forgot to change the name of the organization behind BYOND, causing another federal nuisance. Not long after they dissolved "Dantom" entirely, then able to function with little interruption while the feds continue to search for the elusive entity knows as "Dantom".

Only time will tell if BYOND's name changes again...