Villain.net
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School bully Jake Hunter receives a mysterious email inviting him to join a scheme for world domination. With unlimited power and wealth at his fingertips, how can he resist? But to get it he has to become an arch-criminal, entangled in a plan that threatens the planet. And that could just be a step too far...
Books in this series:
- Council Of Evil
- Dark Hunter
- Power Surge
- Collision Course
Sister series to Hero.com
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Tropes used in Villain.net include:
- A Simple Plan - as Jake observes in the third book, something always goes wrong
- All Girls Want Bad Boys - It's noted in the first book that Jake is quite popular with the girls at his school, including Lorna, one of the protagonists of Hero.com, whose feelings he reciprocates.
- Anti-Villain - Jake, which makes sense as a kids' book can't have a bad guy protagonist be really bad.
- Blond Guys Are Evil - Jake himself is blond. As is Basilisk.
- Cloning Gambit - Basilisk's regeneration ability not only allows him to live much longer, but it changes his DNA to match whoever he took it from. He decides to cover some of his crimes by molding Jake into a scapegoat, but then he discovers that Jake's got plenty of potential, and decides to keep him around. Jake has other plans.
- Dating Catwoman - Jake is the metaphorical "Catwoman" in this case.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones - Losing his family via mind-wiping on the part of the good guys is a large part of what spurs Jake on to become a full-fledged villain.
- Evil Mentor - Basilisk
- The Faceless - Basilisk, courtesy of a sufficiently scary hood. Turns out, he looks just like Jake, as he used an infant Jake's DNA to regenerate his body.
- Flying Car - The aptly named SkyKar.
- Holding Back the Phlebotinum - Jake can only download four powers at the time, and they have an unspecified time limit.
- I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin! - Jake becomes physically addicted to whatever energy Villain.net gives off, to the point that if he goes too long without it, he'll die.
- In the Blood - Basilisk tells Jake that villainy is in his blood so often that it's practically the Arc Words of the first book, and seems to be pretty obvious Foreshadowing of Luke, I Am Your Father or something similar. Turns out, Jake's blood runs through Basilisk, rather than the other way around, because Basilisk came across him as an infant and used his DNA to regenerate. He then decided to manipulate Jake from the shadows, turning him into a callous thug.
- Nice to the Waiter - At one point in the first book, Jake gives up his chair for an older henchman of Basilisk's.
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness - The Council of Evil, though we know its purpose is to make sure supervillains' plots don't overlap or anything.
- Pet the Dog - Jake rescues his teacher after he accidentally sets fire to the classroom, and spares the scientists at the Indian Institute of Advanced Technology when Basilisk asks him to take care of the situation (as in, leave no witnesses).
- Rage Against the Mentor - Jake finally decides he's had enough of Basilisk's bullshit near the end of the first book and not only calls him out on it, but thwarts his evil plan.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old - Basilisk has a regenerating ability that allows him to get an extra few years by borrowing other people's DNA. This leads to Jake's DNA being all over Basilisk's crime scenes, or at least his most recent ones.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent - Upon meeting The Chameleon, Jake assumes he's also a villain. He's wrong, though Chameleon seems to come off as a bit ruthless. Of course, considering the point of view we're seeing him from...
- Sink or Swim Mentor - Basilisk decides that shoving Jake out of the SkyKar is the best way to teach him how to use his downloaded flying abilities.
- Stock Super Powers - The fact that these are downloadable is the driving force behind the plot. There are too many different ones used to list them all here.
- Take a Third Option - if you have superpowers, you have to choose between the Council of Evil and the Hero Foundation. Jake and Forge disapprove.
- Teach Him Anger - As Jake's villainous mentor Basilisk tells him, "Controlled anger is the mightiest weapon."
- Two Lines, No Waiting - This and Hero.com are mostly separate stories, but make occasional references to each other.
- Villain Protagonist - Well, duh.
- What the Hell, Hero? - Jake's not happy when he learns that the Hero Foundation has brainwashed his family, especially when Chameleon tries to justify it as "saving them from the heartache you would have caused."