(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#1 (fb) - BTS) - At 17, Dennis was so disgusted by his father's boring desk job, he told him to his face he'd never be like him. His father just gave him a knowing smile.
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#5 (fb) ) - When Dennis was about ten years old, his father tried to teach him the importance of doing work you love and commit to do that job well: for yourself and not for the acknowledgment or praise of others.
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#1 (fb) - BTS) - After his father's death, Dennis stayed in the house he was born in. He also found himself working every day at the very same old desk he'd once called his father out over. Dennis eventually met and married the painter Abbey.
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#4 (fb) - BTS) -Dennis' brother-in-law died of cancer a few years after his daughter Kelly was born.
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#1 - BTS) - When his sister June was killed by a drunk driver, her 10 year old daughter Kelly moved in with Jim and Abbey.
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#1) - Early one morning, Dennis was working from his
home office when his boss Jim called. He told Dennis that the bank could
no longer afford the grant for the local children's hospital sculpture
garden, forcing Dennis to tell them the bad news. Already depressed
because he had to do something so rotten, he went downstairs to see his
wife arguing with their adopted niece over the fact she didn't want them
to come see a school science exhibit because it was only meant for
actual parents. When she stormed off crying, Dennis had a brief talk
with her in her room, which he also remembered as her sister June's room
once. He tried to cheer her up, even doing a little magic trick that she
always enjoyed when she was younger. Kelly didn't buy that, after all if
he really knew magic he could have saved her mother from that drunk
driver. As he left, she smashed her mom's special picture frame on the
floor in aggravation. Next, Dennis went to the children's hospital to
tell the furious and emotional nurse Samantha Parks the bad news about
the sculpture garden. Just as he was leaving, he spotted a pair of thugs
robbing one of the hospital's medical waste trucks, thinking it
contained valuable drugs. When he tried to stop them, they first beat
him up and then forced him to swallow some of the medical waste they
poured over him. Just as they got ready to shoot him, the Thing happened
by and saved Sykes who collapsed at the hero's feet. Thing brought him
to the Baxter Building for tests, calling Abbey and Kelly to come see
their "hero". After a brief visit, Reed Richards came in to tell him
some bad news: he had discovered that Sykes was already suffering from
stage IV cancer, spread throughout his body though the bio waste mutated
his condition. Richards figured Sykes only had about a month to live, a
fact he immediately hid from Abbey and Kelly when they came in again.
Refusing Reed's offer to refer him to a specialist, he went home to make
the most of his last month on Earth. The next day, went to his job, said
hello to the secretary Lucy and stormed into his boss' office to read
him the riot act before quitting. That night at home, he made a point of
trying to repair Kelly's broken picture frame. Frustrated when the glue
didn't work, he was shocked to find the individual pieces suddenly
melted together in his hands. Before he had time to let that sink in, he
was surprised by a visit from Samantha Parks who wanted to come by and
apologize for going off like that the other day and to say she didn't
blame him for what the bank had done. Inspired by this and his new found
powers, Sykes decided to steal the money the bank had promised the
hospital from the vault. He donned a ski-mask and a cap to hide his
identity and melted the walls of the bank to reach the vault. Stealing
the exact amount the hospital owed, he hid it back home in the empty
crawlspace only to wake up the next morning to see his break-in had made
the papers and that Abbey and Kelly had already found the money. He
tried to explain, showing off his powers, but Abbey was insistent he
returned the money. When he tried to do that that night, he was caught
by Spider-Man who was initially going to turn him in but was so moved by
his story of needing a second chance he let him go. Sykes then spent the
rest of the night at the children's hospital using his powers to create
the proposed sculpture garden from scratch. The next morning, he proudly
showed Abbey and Kelly his work, but the little girl didn't much care,
calling them "just decorations on a place where children die." (Heroic Age: One Month To Live#1 - BTS) - As Dennis and Abbey went to chase after Kelly who had run off, the thugs that tried to rob the medical truck earlier called their boss Mr. Negative to report the sculpture garden. Negative didn't care for anything that would unify the neighborhood, figuring it would make the place harder to control and exploit. He ordered it destroyed and then to do the same to whoever built it.
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#3) - Dennis accompanied the Fantastic Four on a
trip to the core of the galaxy where Ego the Living Planet for some
reason had placed itself in the center of things where he kept expanding
and consuming dozens of stars in an attempt to become the galaxy itself.
Reed Richards figured that Dennis' powers had the potential to work on a
global scale, making him perfect to take on a target the size of Ego. On
the way there, Mr. Fantastic officially inducted Dennis into the FF,
even using a portable molecular destabilizer to transform his dad's old
army duds into a FF uniform. Feeling grateful but attached to his dad's
clothes, Dennis asked to have them back. Reed complied, although making
a few improvements. Now looking like a real superhero, the FF stood
around discussing suitable codenames for Sykes, with the Invisible Woman
coming up with the winner: Flux. As Flux, he went down to the
surface of Ego where, guided by Mr. Fantastic, he successfully managed
to reach out to Ego and use his powers to manipulate energy and matter
to force the planet to shrink back down to normal size. As he was poking
around inside Ego's form, Dennis determined the cause of the recent
troubles: a bio-mineral parasite had been implanted inside him. With
Flux's help, Ego was able to get rid of the creature. Now himself again,
Ego prepared to depart, but not before thanking Dennis personally. More
than a little exhausted and coffing, Dennis was nevertheless exhilarated
by this adventure.
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#5) - With only a few days left to him and unable to
even hold down solid foods any more, Dennis Sykes decided to make the
best of it. He took his niece for a walk, trying to impart the life
lessons he'd picked up from his own father on her. Their quality time
was interrupted by Hammerhead who was destroying the neighborhood in
order to convince the locals they really should accept his boss' very
generous offer to buy up their properties. When Kelly defiantly stood up
to the gangster, Dennis quickly put on his Flux costume and tried to
oppose him too. He managed to keep the super powered gangster busy long
enough for the Avengers to arrive, with Thor taking him down with a
single bolt of lightning. Afterwards, Captain America and Iron Man
officially inducted Flux into the Avengers, thanking him for his
service. A little while later, in his own home and in the presence of
his wife Abbey, Dennis Sykes passed on. 
(Heroic Age: One Month To Live#5 - BTS) - In honor of Dennis' heroic example, a
statue of Flux was erected in the local hospital's statue garden.