What is now the atomic crater known as Foggy Bottom was once an experimental government weapons lab, with a director known as Humdinger. Ryder’s parents were employees at this facility. One day a new highly experimental energy weapon test went wrong. It exploded and most employees were tragically killed. Radiation from this weapon affected some of the survivors, ten year old Ryder, and the director. Ryder was made perpetually a ten year old boy, and the director was made insane and believed he was the mayor of an atomic crater, which he calls Foggy Bottom. Ryder found a pack of dogs in the aftermath which had also absorbed radiation and now had the intelligence of humans and mutated vocal cords to produce speech. He inherited his parents money and a lighthouse at the edge of town. He dedicated his life to protecting the townsfolk of Adventure Bay, a town founded to house the employees of the previously mentioned facility, which now houses the amnesiac survivors of the event, who’s ages were also halted.