Michael Grant - Villain

First published in Great Britain in 2018

by Electric Monkey, an imprint of Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Published by arrangement with HarperCollins Children’s Books,

a division of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, USA

Text copyright © 2018 Michael Grant

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

First e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978 1 4052 8484 4

Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1767 0

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties.

Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

Egmont takes its responsibility to the planet and its inhabitants very seriously. We aim to use papers from well-managed forests run by responsible suppliers.

To my daughter, Clara

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

-

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

—Revelations 13:1–2

California’s governor and legislature are rushing to replace the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, which was destroyed in a battle between police and a superpowered mutant calling himself Knightmare. . . .

—The New York Times

The Port of Los Angeles is still conducting damage assessments following the battle involving several mutant creatures, but early estimates run to the billions of dollars. . . .

—Press Office, Port of Los Angeles

The president has issued a tweet criticizing late-night comedy shows for portraying him as paralyzed in the face of this novel threat. . . .

—Associated Press

Ministry of State Security (MSS)

People’s Republic of China

Electronic Communications Intercept (ECI) #42-8909

The following conversation took place between Deputy Undersecretary of US Homeland Security Peter Stroudwell (PS) and Angela Britten (AB), a senior advisor to the Homeland Security General Counsel, at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.

PS: The president has suggested asking the population to take direct action. His words. Direct action.

AB: What action? Does he want the whole country hiding in shelters indefinitely?

PS: Not that kind of action. He’s calling for a Second Amendment solution.

AB: You’re kidding. He’s suggesting every gun nut in the country go on a mutant-killing spree? Come on, Peter, you must know —

PS: Of course I know! Jesus, Angela, why do you think I’m talking to you? You’re in the counsel’s office, you’re a lawyer, you need to do something to head this off.

AB: Right, because I can somehow stop POTUS. I need a drink.

END OF ECI

Madam Chairman, to be honest, we haven’t got the first goddamned clue how to stop these monsters.

—Secret testimony of FBI director

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Electric Monkey, an imprint of Egmont UK Limited The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN Published by arrangement with HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, USA Text copyright © 2018 Michael Grant The moral rights of the author have been asserted. First e-book edition 2018 ISBN 978 1 4052 8484 4 Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1767 0 www.egmont.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Stay safe online. Any website addresses listed in this book are correct at the time of going to print. However, Egmont is not responsible for content hosted by third parties. Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet. Egmont takes its responsibility to the planet and its inhabitants very seriously. We aim to use papers from well-managed forests run by responsible suppliers.

Dedication To my daughter, Clara

Epigraph And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. - And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. —Revelations 13:1–2

1: IT RHYMES WITH VILLAIN

2: FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS SCREAM ALONE

3: VETERANS OF PAST AND FUTURE WARS

ASO-6

4: AND COMING IN AT NUMBER ONE . . .

5: CRACKERS WITH A LUNATIC

6: DO YOU FEEL MY PAIN? HOW ABOUT NOW?

7: THERE’S MORE THAN ONE KIND OF PREDATOR

8: THE SYMBIOSIS OF GOOD AND EVIL

9: TAKE OVER THE WHAT?

Interstitial

ASO-6

10: IT TAKES SIX SECONDS TO FALL FIVE HUNDRED FEET

11: IT’S ONLY PAIN

12: SEMPER FI

13: LETTING THE ANIMALS OUT OF THE ZOO

14: MISSED HIM BY THAT MUCH

15: THE BACTERIUM SCREAMS

16: EVERYTHING’S COMING UP DEKKA

ASO-6

17: THE CHEERIOS OF WAR

18: TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

19: RUTHLESSNESS: NOT JUST FOR SHARKS ANYMORE

Interstitial

20: MONSTER SURPLUS

21: WITH GREAT POWER COMES PURE MALICE

22: WORLD WAR VEGAS

23: ROUGH BEASTS, NO BETHLEHEM

24: WE ARE THE CHIMPIONS

ASO-6

25: RANDOM CHANCE

26: THE HERO THING

27: DRAGON AND GASOLINE

28: A BONFIRE OF INNOCENTS

29: ONE LESS HOTEL

30: THE SPEECH

31: AFTERMATH

ASO-6

ASO-7

Acknowledgments

Back series promotional page

“HEY, FREAK? WHAT are you looking at?”

The drunk tank, the catch-all common room used as a first stop for drunks and druggies, was a large space lined with a wall-mounted steel bench. The floor was bare cement, sloped down to a drain in the center of the room. There was a single window with both bars and thick wire over filthy glass, allowing neither sunlight nor cheer, but a grim, gray reminder that there was an outside world.

The walls of the drunk tank were painted a sickly yellow, the color of baby puke, which went perfectly with the reek of vomit.

There were maybe fifteen adult men in the room, and the barely eighteen-year-old Dillon Poe, and Dillon felt very, very bad. Bad to a degree he had never felt before.