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Characters for the Series by Michael Grant. Beware of the massive cast of characters. For the sake of simplicity, characters will be sorted by whatever side they start on, as alliances are perpetually changing.


Introduced in the original series:

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     Perdido Beach 

"Welcome to Perdido beach, where our motto is: Radiation, what radiation?”

Sam Temple

Sam: "Man, don't ever be sorry you don't want to kill someone."

The series' main protagonist. Fourteen years old at the start of Gone, Sam is reluctantly pulled into playing the role of the town's hero. After deposing his twin brother Caine, he takes over as the mayor of Perdido Beach at the end of Gone and does his best to protect it from internal and external threats.

  • Above the Influence: He's not, as he finds out when he gets drunk in Plague and Taylor makes out with him.
  • Being Good Sucks: Often laments that having to be the hero/leader puts a lot of pressure on him, and his nobility has got him in some bad situations.
  • Berserk Button: Exploited by Astrid, who realizes he'll be better able to use his power when angry and tells him that Drake slapped her and made her call Little Pete a retard.
  • Clueless Chick-Magnet: To some extent. Astrid (multiple times), Diana (twice), Lana, Brianna, Penny (implied) & Taylor (at least thrice) all point out his good looks, with Diana saying he's a "perfect" boy (smart, brave & cute). Diana, Penny, Taylor, & Astrid all hit on/flirt with him at least once. Brianna admits that she has a crush on Sam, "like every other girl, aside from Dekka". Sam is oblivious to all of this, except Taylor's crush.
  • Discard and Draw: In Hero he consumes a piece of the ASO meteor and gains the ability to create bubbles similar to the FAYZ dome.
  • Fire-Forged Friends:
    • With Dekka, to the point that, when he imagines moving into a houseboat with his girlfriend and her little brother, he pictures Dekka living there, too.
    • Also, with Diana by Light, who he actually does end up living with.
  • Flanderization: Of his Hormone-Addled Teenager side, really played up to new heights in Plague.
  • Happily Ever After: Sam is acquitted of his crimes and ends up with Astrid after the FAYZ ends.
  • The Hero: Especially in Gone, although he's reluctant about it.
  • Heroic BSoD: Starts in Hunger, but more so in Lies and Plague.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: A major part of his character as the books go on. He frequently imagines people judging him for all the horrible things he's done, and always feels inadequate.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners:
    • With Quinn, at first. They've drifted apart now, but they reconcile by the end.
    • With Edilio afterwards, although Edilio doesn't fit the 'heterosexual' part, but they're still essentially brothers by the end of the story. So it still counts
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Uses this as a justification when others try to stop him from completing less than pleasant tasks.
  • Insatiable Newlyweds: Once he and Astrid finally hook up, they can't keep their hands off each other.
  • Kid Hero: Justified, in that there aren't any adults.
  • Light 'em Up: His power is to create orbs of green light called "Sammy Suns" and fire beams of energy.
  • Promotion to Parent: Deconstructed; the stress of being the adopted father of every kid in Perdido Beach takes its toll on him.
  • Refusal of the Call: He initially rejects the authority foisted on him, but soon rises up to it challenge and does his best to care for the children and teenagers.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Hooks up with Astrid in Fear, and in the epilogue of Light they end up living together.
  • Reluctant Warrior: Never wanted to rule Perdido Beach, but the choice was between him and the people who did want to, who weren’t the best candidates.

Astrid Ellison

Astrid: "What’s happened so far? Coyotes evolved limited powers of speech. Worms developed teeth and became aggressive and territorial. Snakes grew wings and developed a new form of metamorphosis. Some of us developed powers. So far there’s been a lot of strange, but not a lot of stupid. This, though, this...is just stupid.."

Nicknamed "Astrid the Genius," Astrid is The Smart Guy of Perdido Beach. Sam's main love interest and one of the series' few non-Action Girls, until Fear when she Took a Level in Badass.

  • Aggressive Categorism: She is often the subject of this.
  • All Women Are Lustful: In the middle of a Heroic BSoD she has sex with Sam in Fear, and it's mentioned in future books that whenever they're alone together they can't keep out of each others' pants.
  • Arch-Enemy: Drake, being a misogynistic sociopath, takes a particular dislike to Astrid, and Astrid to him when he forces her to call her brother a retard.
  • Badass Bookworm: Not having useful powers, Astrid relies on her brain to solve problems.
  • Betty and Veronica: Betty to Taylor's Veronica.
  • Blatant Lies: During Lies, this becomes her Signature Move.
  • Celibate Heroine: Deconstructed. She starts out as a typical example, abstaining from sex due to her religious faith. Over the series, she learns the hard way how impractical it is to be like that in the FAYZ, as she struggles with her faith and morals. She completely gives up on trying to emulate this trope in Plague when she pushes Little Pete out a window, and in Fear, she's far less of a role model and loses her chastity.
  • Control Freak: Her biggest flaw is that she constantly tries to micromanage.
  • Manipulative Bitch: In Lies she gets really bad at manipulates other people.
  • Pride: One of her biggest flaws, especially in Lies.
  • Promotion to Parent: Played straight at first with Little Pete, but later deconstructed, as she hates being her brother's sole caretaker at fourteen.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Astrid has sex with Sam in Fear, and following that they become an Official Couple.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Receives them just as often as she delivers them.
  • The Resenter: Starts feeling this towards Little Pete, although she is devastated when she kills him.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: As a result of her intelligence she tends to use big words such as when she called Howard an "Invertebrate."
  • Shoot the Dog: Berates Sam for his willingness to do this but later goes through with it herself with her younger brother, Pete.
  • The Smart Guy: She's the main one in the series due to her high intelligence.
  • Soapbox Sadie: She is prone to making speeches regarding things she takes issue with.
  • Sour Prudes: Prior to losing her virginity she looks down on Diana for her promiscuous reputation.
  • Team Mom: Everyone comes to look up to her and she becomes a community leader in Albert's absence.
  • Teen Genius: Hence her nickname "Astrid the Genius".
  • Took a Level in Badass: After she leaves Perdido Beach at the end of Plague, she ends up doing this in Fear, learning to survive on her own and becoming a full-fledged Action Girl. In Hero, she eats some of the ASO meteor and gains the ability to bulk up immensely.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: She initially believes she can read a person's potential, but Hero reveals she was mistaken. In a world of pyrokinetics and whiphands, this has yet to do her any good.

Peter Ellison

Called Pete, Petey, or Little Pete. Astrid's younger brother, Little Pete suffers from very severe autism, rendering him mostly incapable of communication, which hides what is probably the FAYZ's highest-ranking power.

Albert Hillsborough

Albert: It couldn't last. Everyone was just killing time. But if all they did was kill time, time would end up killing them.

Before the FAYZ, Albert lived a life of relative anonymity, but after the adults disappeared, he kept his head and started figuring out how to make things work. At this point, he pretty much runs the FAYZ's economy.

  • Awesomeness by Analysis: Manages to come up with a working economy using an eighth grade education and an encyclopedia.
  • Badass on Paper: While Albert is good with business and corporate management, he's a greedy coward.
  • Black and Nerdy: Implied to have been this before the FAYZ.
  • Good with Numbers: And economics in general, leading him to take over management of the local McDonald's and eventually economic management of the rest of Perdido Beach.
  • Greed: His main vice is his greed, which only grows worse over the course of the series.
  • Jerkass: He slowly becomes one, culminating in him absconding to the island mansion on the far side of the FAYZ barrier.
  • Jerk With A Heartof Jerk: Is remorselessly self-centred, although he has a My God, What Have I Done? moment at the end.
  • Just the First Citizen: Caine especially is irritated that the real power in the FAYZ is held by a skinny black kid with a ledger book.
  • Karma Houdini: Becomes famous after the FAYZ ends, although he hates himself for what he did.
  • Married Tothe Job: Until Light, when he is convinced to return and ultimately has a Heroic BSoD.
  • No-Respect Guy: Subverted. While not everyone admits his importance, almost everyone recognizes that he holds the real power, at least in Plague.
  • Not Quite Dead: In Plague he is almost killed, but makes a full recovery with Lana's help.
  • No Sympathy: As he rakes levels in jerkass he develops this attitude towards everyone else.
  • Rich Bitch: Evolves into this over the course of the series.
  • Right Man in the Wrong Place: Starts out as just a normal kid who finds himself in an abandoned McDonalds after all the adults disappear and realizes that someone has to take care of the restaurant as everything is descending into chaos. This eventually leads to him managing the whole of Perdido Beach's economy.
  • Schemer: A strange aversion in which his schemes usually work. Every. Single. Time.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Pulls a fast one in Fear by absconding to the island manor.
  • The Scrooge: Albert becomes a greedy, penny-pinching miser, eventually absconding with his wealth to the island manor in an attempt to escape.
  • Self-Deprecation: It's implied in the end of Light that he's full of self-loathing for his numerous amoral actions.
  • Self-Made Man: He started the series as a loner from a large family without much money, and, in Plague, Sam notes that he effectively runs the FAYZ despite never directly taking part in the power struggles.
  • Ship Tease: With Leslie-Ann, though he later expresses interest in Alicia.
  • The Team Benefactor: He comes to manage the FAYZ's economy by himself.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: During Hunger he starts becoming increasingly selfish, and just gets worse as the series goes on.
  • Vetinari Job Security: By Light, everyone hates him for betraying them, but they let him come back anyway because he's the only one who can keep the kids in line and set up a system to stop them from all starving while they are fixated on the adults on the other side of the now-transparent barrier.

Lana Lazar

Pack Leader: "Human. Go to darkness."
Lana: "Coyote. Go to hell!"

Only in the FAYZ because her parents caught her sneaking out alcohol and sent her to live with her grandfather, Lana was trapped in a crashed car in the middle of the desert after her grandfather disappeared. In her desperation, she developed the ability to cure her own injuries and eventually met and joined the protagonists.

  • Action Girl: Lana starts off as a normal girl, but the Mind Rape she endures thanks to the Gaiaphage hardens her to the point where she becomes able to defy it through willpower alone. Even before that, she killed a coyote with a gold brick.
  • Alliterative Name: Except her middle name, Arwen, break the pattern.
  • Broken Bird: In Gone and Hunger her suffering almost breaks her, but she proves that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
  • Healing Hands: Her power enables her to heal almost any injury.
  • Heroic BSoD: She starts to suffer from this as a result of the Gaiaphage.
  • Horrifying the Horror: Lana's raw determination and willpower enables her to defy and frighten the Gaiaphage, the entity that dominated her throughout Gone and Hunger.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She becomes increasingly bitter and cantankerous as the series goes on, but remains a good person.
  • The Lad-ette: She smokes like a chimney. She drinks like a fish. She has underaged sex. But she's one of the good guys.
  • Love Triangle: Edilio, Quinn, and Sanjit have one revolving around her, although it's a pretty minor subplot. It's only hinted at in Edilio's case, and definitely not going anywhere there, what with him and the Artful Roger. She ultimately hooks up Sanjit and blackmails him into buying her smokes by refusing to have sex with him.
  • Lysistrata Gambit: When Sanjit hides her cigarettes she threatens to stop having sex with him until he returns them.
  • Meaningful Name: Lazar? As in Lazarus?
  • Mind Rape: Happens to her in Hunger, courtesy of the Gaiaphage. When she pulls herself back together, the result scares even it.
  • The Medic: Shares this role with Dahra thanks to her healing powers.
  • Mr. Vice Guy: Smokes, drinks, packs a gun, has sex. All at the age of fourteen.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: She is Lana Arwen Lazar. And the Gaiaphage knows it.
  • Nervesof Steel: Why the Gaiaphage becomes unable to control her.
  • No-Sell: Is completely unFAYZed by Penny's illusions due to having seen much worse.
  • Poke in the Third Eye: When Gaia tries to use her healing powers in Light, Lana shuts her down.
  • Sex for Solace: She tells Quinn that she started sleeping with Sanjit because it comforted her.
  • Smoking Is Cool: Doubts she'll live long enough to suffer the consequences. Not to mention that her healing power would probably fix any damage caused. She quits in Light
  • Took A Levelin Badass: Compare Lana at the beginning of Gone to the beginning of Hunger: the fragile, kind of girly girl is dead and LONG gone.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Dahra.

Quinn Gaither

Quinn: "I had a polynomial once. My doctor removed it."

Sam's best friend and surfing buddy. Suffers from some serious jealousy of the kids with superpowers in Gone, but eventually comes around. He finds solace in being a fisherman and becomes an important resource for the Peridido Beach kids.

  • Character Development: Has developed into a solidly badass character by the time of Fear, having punched out Penny, and having a keen eye for how to push people's buttons.
  • Dirty Coward: In Gone. He gets better and becomes a stabilizing force of the community.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: He moons after Lana until she pulls a gun on him.
  • Fantastic Racism: Towards moofs, initially. At his lowest points, sometimes resorts to actual racism. He gets better, though.
  • Gallows Humor: Quinn has a tendency to make macabre jokes that is lampshaded frequently.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: Not exactly, but he flips sides a lot in Gone. Also, at the end of Plague, he stays with Caine instead of going with Sam, though this time it's not out of any malevolence on his part. He just wants to fish.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Sam, at first.
  • The Lancer: Subverted. He was Sam's best friend before the FAYZ, but his betrayal in Gone makes it that he doesn't get this role. Then he left Sam for good in Plague because he felt he was needed as a fisherman.
  • Refusal of the Call: When Sam offers him to be mayor at the end of Fear. He just wants to go back to fishing.
  • Stepford Smiler: One of his POV chapters in Hunger states that he frequently puts on a smile to hide his sadness over the Thanksgiving battle.
  • The Load: Starts off as this. Then he learns to fish.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Fear really picks up when he punches Penny in the nose for torturing Cigar. It only escalates from there.
  • Unfazed Everyman: He's not a moof. He's not a badass. He's just... Sam's friend. Until Fear, when he and his fishing crew become indispensable to Perdido Beach and one of the few people who can stand up to Caine with impunity; lampshaded by Caine himself.

Edilio Escobar

"I had fun with taking what seemed like a throwaway character, a poor kid from Honduras with no special abilities or superpowers, and making him one of the most important people in the FAYZ. When Edilio first appeared I guarantee no one guessed where he was going. One of my few planned things was to show that it isn’t always about the kid who can shoot light out of his hands, sometimes it’s about the guy who is just honest, hardworking, modest and determined. A world of Edilio's would be a good place."
- Michael Grant

Son of illegal immigrants, recently moved to Perdido Beach from Honduras. One of the few people in the FAYZ who's not either an Anti-Hero or straight-up villain, and trains their version of armed forces.

  • Alliterative Name: Both his first and last name begin with "E".
  • Badass Normal: No superpowers to speak of, but he doesn't let that stop him from kicking butt.
  • Berserk Button: Hit a girl in front of him? Accuse him of not caring about anyone? Then you're on the wrong side of Edilio; is pressed HARD in ''Fear

by Sam and Dekka of all people; but more Sam than the latter, as she just happened to be there.

  • Big Good: As of Light. Especially when Caine gives him control of Perdido Beach.
  • The Big Guy: Fills this role in Sam's group being more than willing and capable of fighting. This is until Orc has a Heel–Face Turn and takes over.
  • Child Soldiers: He is a teenager who, over the course of the series, becomes familiar with the ins and outs of weaponry and he trains the other children in their use.
  • Cincinnatus: Takes over if necessary and does a damn good job too, but doesn't relish or abuse the authority.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: One of the effects of being so chivalrous and moral, Edilio will often throw himself into any situation to help someone else.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: A side effect of the trope above, if someone's in danger? Edilio will jump at the call, if a girl is in danger? Steer clear. To give an example, he charged Orc to stop him from hurting a girl. Granted he failed, but still.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Implied to be this for Lana. Until she shoots him. Yeah, she's forming a habit. Tossed out of the window entirely in Fear..
  • Nice Guy: One of the series' few genuine ones.
  • Only Sane Man: He's one of the few genuinely good people in the FAYZ who is just trying to keep everyone else safe.
  • The Stoic: With the occasional but effective Not So Stoic moment. He spends a good deal of Light having Not So Stoic moments.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: When he thought Roger had been killed in Light. And he is still the nicest person there...

Charles "Orc" Merriman

Orc: "My name is Charles. People should call me by my real name...sometimes."

A bully-turned-atoner, Orc was originally recruited by Caine before defecting to Sam's side as it seemed more likely for him to win. Becomes The Alcoholic by the end of Gone. After coyotes devour him, he replaces his missing body parts with rock, leaving only a shrinking patch of skin on his face. Howard acts as his best friend, toady, and manager. Revealed in Plague to be suicidal.

  • Abusive Parents: His father drilled a hole through his hand.
  • The Alcoholic: To cope with his guilt over killing Bette and the loss of his humanity, he begins drinking copious amounts of alcohol. In eighth grade.
  • The Atoner: Feels horrible about killing Bette and even puts his life at risk putting out fires in Lies and refuses to take payment for it]]. However, he does accidentally kill a little boy in Plague.
  • Berserk Button: Nobody threatens Astrid in his presence and gets away with it.
  • The Big Guy: Post-Heel–Face Turn he takes over this role from Edilio.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Orc uses his nigh-invincibility to help out... in exchange for beer or if Astrid is the one asking.
  • The Brute: Pre-Heel–Face Turn he was a thuggish unintelligent bully.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Gets hit by a missile thrown by Caine while fighting Gaia.
  • Death Seeker: In Plague, Orc tries committing suicide unsuccessfully; he gets better in Fear.
  • Does Not Know His Own Strength: Which leads him to accidentally kill Bette and a random kid on the street.
  • Driven to Suicide: Tries to kill himself in Plague.
  • Gasshole: Not very apparent in later books but in Gone and Hunger he was frequently belching and farting from other character's POV.
  • Heel–Face Turn: At Howard's recommendation Orc joins Sam's side and seeks to atone for the wrongs he committed.
  • Heel–Faith Turn: Said change is accompanied by him finding religion and becoming interested in reading the Bible.
  • Hidden Depths: He's surprisingly remorseful over killing Bette and even acknowledges the fact that Howard is smarter than him.
  • Literally Shattered Lives: In the climax of Light he is blown up by a missile.
  • Ship Tease: With Astrid and Sinder. It doesn't go anywhere.
  • Taken for Granite: After being half-eaten by a coyote he regenerates with a gravel-like substance in place of flesh, which continues to spread until his entire body except part of his face is covered.
  • Villainous Crush: While not exactly a villain, at least after his Heel–Face Turn, he's heavily implied to have had a crush on Astrid since before the FAYZ and will occasionally help her when she's in trouble. As of Fear it is implied that he has one on Sinder as well.

Howard Bassem

Howard: "I came up with myself. FAYZ. Spelled F-A-Y-Z. It stands for Fallout Alley Youth Zone. Fallout Alley, and nothing but kids. Don't worry, Astrid, it's just a FAYZ. Get it? Just a FAYZ."

Orc's best friend, toady, and manager, Howard is cynical, sarcastic, and fond of nicknaming things. Doesn't seem to care much about anyone aside from himself and Orc.

  • Ambiguously Gay: Very close to Orc, which is implied to be an unrequited crush in Fear:
    Penny: And [I granted] Howard's fantasies, which by the way, you wouldn't believe.
  • Blatant Lies: Surprisingly averted when Astrid wants him to lie to the town about Brittney and Orsay.
  • Bystander Syndrome: Howard never directly involves himself in anything, preferring to direct Orc at it instead.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: In Fear, when he makes the mistake of wandering too close to Drake and a pack of starving coyotes.
  • The Cynic: Becomes increasingly cynical as the FAYZ goes on.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Howard employs surprisingly sophisticated and biting wit.
  • Dirty Coward: At first, he hides behind Orc and switches sides at his own convenience. Later seems to be developing some courage, though.
  • The Dragon: He is this to Orc, although he's the smarter of the two.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Most nicknames in the series (e.g. the FAYZ, Zekes, 'Bertos etc.) are his doing.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Changes to Sam's side with Orc in Gone when he thinks it's the smarter move. However, he remains a cynical naysayer who frequently challenges Sam and Astrid.
  • Jerkass: Especially in Gone, where it takes a physical threat from Mary to convince him to arrange to get food for a bunch of toddlers.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: No matter who's side he's on, he will call them out when the time is right.
  • Jerk With A Heartof Gold: Genuinely cares for Orc.
  • Papa Wolf: When it comes to Orc.
  • The Load: He has no powers and is naturally snide, so when the going gets rough he tends to annoy everyone and not much else.
  • Professional Buttkisser: Tries to ingratiate himself with whoever's in power, although that doesn't stop him from calling bullshit on them from time to time.
  • Sitcom Archnemesis: Maintains this with Astrid post-Heel–Face Turn.
  • Slimeball: He's a manipulative, selfish bully and doesn't really change.
  • Stopped Caring: Until Lies when he really steps up and takes his job seriously, although after that failed he went right back to normal.

Mary Terrafino

A girl from Sam's grade who used to suffer from anorexia and bulimia and relapses soon after taking over the daycare.

John Terrafino

Mary's little brother who helps her take care of the baby.

Duck Zhang

"Superpowers don't always make you a superhero."

One of the normal kids in the FAYZ until he discovers an ability to alter his density.

  • Accidental Misnaming: Caine keeps referring to him as "Goose."
  • Ambiguously Brown: Sort of; his last name (Zhang) makes it sound like he might be Asian, but it's never mentioned. He mentions that he could maybe visit his great grandparents in China if he keeps going while he's sinking into the ground.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Turns out, that random kid whose pool got stolen really is important.
  • Dirty Coward: While most of the kids joined Sam's uprising against Caine in Gone, Duck is described to have been hiding in his closet reading comics during that time.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Manages to keep the Gaiaphage quiet for a while by dragging the majority of it to the bottom of the FAYZ bubble... but not forever.

Brittney Donegal

One of Edilio's Child Soldiers, she was working in the power plant when it gets attacked, and she is killed. She later revives as an undead being capable of regenerating from any injury, but is Sharing a Body with Drake. She eventually succumbs to madness and starts worshipping the Gaiaphage.

  • And I Must Scream: The poor kid gets buried alive... or rather, undead.
  • Body Horror: While attached to Drake, she gets chopped up by Brianna. And gets better.
  • Came Back Wrong: After being killed, she revives as an undead, regenerating creature.
  • Child Soldiers: Is one before she dies. In fact, it's what gets her killed.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: After going insane she becomes prone to nonsensical dogmatic rants.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Astrid, as both are Christians who begin to question their devotion. While Astrid becomes increasingly atheistic, Brittany decides the Gaiaphage is God.
  • Face–Heel Turn: When the Gaiaphage reveals its true form to her, she becomes its devoted servant.
  • Faith–Heel Turn: In Plague, leading to Religion of Evil when she starts worshiping the Gaiaphage.
  • The Fundamentalist: Was a hardcore Christian even before her Faith–Heel Turn, but the level of zealotry she engages herself in afterwards makes her prior self seem atheistic in comparison.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: Until her Face–Heel Turn, she begs to be killed so that Drake will be destroyed.
  • From a Single Cell: Her power enables her to regenerate and reattach body parts.
  • Monster from Beyond the Veil: She gets brought back as an undead entity sharing her body with Drake.
  • Sharing a Body: Again, with Drake, and when his personality takes over her body transforms into his.
  • Split-Personality Takeover: She stops popping up after Gaia puts Drake back together.
  • The Undead: She has no pulse and doesn't need to breathe, although she objects to being called a zombie on the grounds that she doesn't eat brains.
  • Walk, Don't Swim: One of the benefits of being undead is that she can walk along the bottom of bodies of water.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Brittney has been enslaved, tortured numerous times in horrific ways, disfigured, has her only family killed, is killed herself and spends 3 months in a grave in the duration of the series, and then resurrects as an undead entity. As such, while she plays a prominent role in the attempts to wipe out the population of Perdido Beach with giant man-eating bugs in PLAGUE, but even though she persists in helping the ongoing genocide attempts by her master, even Sam is reluctant to try and stop her, actually apologizing for ruining her evil plans.

Hunter

One of Zil's friends until he develops the power to emit microwave radiation, which leads to a bit of friction.

Bette

Usually called "Bouncing Bette," Bette is a girl in Sam's class at school who has the ability to create small fireballs.

  • Cool Big Sister: Secures her younger brother's safety while suffering internal damage to her brain.
  • Red Shirt: She is the second Moof to die, and by accident at that.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Is only mentioned a handful of times before being killed by Orc.

Elwood

Dahra's Ex-Boyfreind

Jamal

Shows up in Plague when a newly escaped Drake enlists his help.

Dahra Baidoo

The series medic, runs the hospital with her boyfriend Elwood until they break up between Lies and Plague

  • Demoted to Extra: In Fear, although she was never that important to begin with.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Inverted; she's not the LEAST bit upset about breaking up with Elwood.

Cigar

Given name Bradley, Cigar is one of Quinn's fishermen.

  • Accidental Murder: He didn't mean to kill one of his fellow fisherman - he was too drunk to really know what he was doing.
  • Ascended Extra: He's mentioned a couple times in Hunger, Lies, and Plague, but he doesn't become important at all until Fear.
  • Body Horror: His eyes are completely gone. Lana heals them, but they only grow back to tiny orbs that never really see properly.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: After being driven insane by Penny's illusions.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets eaten alive by Zekes.
  • Eye Scream: Penny's illusions cause him to gouge his own eyes out.
  • I See Dead People: Sort of; after Penny ruins his eyes and Lana tries to regrow them, he's the only one that can see the Gaiaphage's psychic tentacles and Little Pete in his new form.

Cookie

Patrick

Lana's faithful pet dog.

  • Heroic Dog: Patrick accompanies Lana everywhere and helps her as best as a dog can.
  • Pet the Dog: He's one of the few animals not to be killed and eaten, largely because that would make Lana angry and that would be bad for everyone.
  • Token Non-Human: He's the only prominently featured non-human character.
  • Undying Loyalty: Towards Lana, his owner.

E.Z

Jill

  • Break the Cutie: She gets kidnapped by The Human Crew, then is taken under the care of Nerreza, a.k.a the Gaiaphage.
  • Buried Alive: This almost happens to her, but Sam saves her.
  • Compelling Voice: Her superpower is to get people to listen to her.

Sinder

  • Character Blog: Had one up online.
  • Green Thumb: Is a keen gardener due to her ability to help plants grow.
  • Perky Goth: She is a goth, but she's really into gardening and considers changing her favourite color from black to green.

     Coates Academy 

Caine Soren

"The FAYZ doesn't need a hero anymore. It needs a king."

The series' resident Big Bad and Sam's twin brother, Caine was raised by unloving parents and developed high ambitions and a sociopathic nature. He demonstrates little, if any, understanding of right and wrong and doesn't object to hurting anyone but his love interest, Diana.

  • Affably Evil: He's perfectly pleasant until you imply you don't want him to rule the world.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: In Light all the time, and in Fear when Penny cements his hands and staples an aluminum crown to his forehead.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: He delivers not one, not two, but three throughout the series, though it's left ambiguous as to how many (if any) were truthful and how many were forms of manipulation (again, if any).
    • The first is in Hunger, where — after Diana has her head smashed against a rock — he goes into a blind panic, crying at her side and incoherently sobbing to Sam about how he loves her, and that if he came to kill him, "Now would be a good time."
    • He next delivers one (well, a implied one) in PLAGUE, though arguably just to get into Diana's pants:
      "What would I do without you? How would I live without you? Because. Because you are the only human being I need."
    • And finally he delivers a direct, genuine one to Diana's face in Light.
  • Archnemesis Dad: To Gaia, the Gaiaphage's host and his daughter.
  • The Atoner: In Light he seeks to make up for everything he put everyone through. He succeeds, but at the cost of his life. Posthumously, he leaves a note claiming sole responsibility for all the bad things that happened, exonerating Sam.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite everything, Caine and Diana have on occasion shown genuine affection for each other.
  • Being Evil Sucks: Figures this out in Light.
  • Berserk Button: As a general rule, messing with Diana when he's around is not a good idea.
  • Big Bad: Mainly in Gone; after that, the Gaiaphage takes over the role.
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: He's the one that finishes off the Gaiaphage (with Little Pete controlling him), but it cost him his life.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Comes across, at first, as being this for Diana.
  • Dying Declaration of Love: Shortly after his sacrifice, Diana receives a letter in which she is told that he's sorry for hurting her and that he loves her.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Saving the world in the process has to count for something, right?
  • Enemy Mine: Repeatedly pulls this with Sam whenever Drake and the Gaiaphage are involved.
  • Enfant Terrible: According to Connie, who claims she just "knew" he was evil even when he was a baby.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely loves Diana, though he has a hard time expressing that.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He has no problems killing innocents, siccing coyotes on small children, and imposing dictatorships, but he doesn't rape Diana, although, as he is fond of pointing out, it would be easy for him to do so. However, much of the fandom thought he was a bit too proud of something so basic.
    • He's also horrified at what Penny does to her victims in Fear.
  • Evil Twin: He's Sam's twin brother, and has ambitions to rule Perdido Beach as a king.
  • Evil Overlord: His ambition. Actually succeeds, although it takes him four books.
  • Flanderization: No secret was made of Caine's egomania and grandiose sense of self-worth, but Plague really cranks it up a few notches. In the first three books, he is a dangerous but nuanced narcissist who is pretty bad, but not all the way evil per se. He thought way too highly of himself, but at least could recognize that his ego was out of control, and had the ability to contain it, or at least disguise it in public. In Plague he refers to himself as a king, treats his Morality Pet as a possession and seems to believe he was chosen by God. Even his fangirls were a little peeved.
  • Freudian Excuse: He rationalizes his adoption, despite the fact that he was actually raised in a much more comfortable environment with his adoptive parents than he was his actual mother.
  • A Good Way to Die: He went out on a high, finally managing to prove to the Gaiaphage that he can't be controlled, showing up his brother, saving the world and having mended his relationship with Diana. Not to mention him redeeming himself and being remembered as the guy who saved the world rather than the sociopath who cemented dozens of children's hands. He died thinking about Diana, and remarks that it was a "good feeling". Closest thing to a happy ending a character like him could ever get.
  • Grand Theft Me: Caine allows Little Pete to take him over to kill Gaia. Justified in that it was voluntary, and actually worked out pretty well for him. His last thoughts before his body is taken over- and burnt to ashes- are a memory of lying in bed with Diana as Little Pete wanted him to "go out on a good memory".
  • Heel–Face Turn: While he acknowledges he's a Card-Carrying Villain, he still seeks to redeem himself in Light.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Caine lets Little Pete take him over and dies killing Gaia.
  • Jerkass: Becomes this to Diana in Plague. She does not take it well.
  • Lack of Empathy: More and more as the series progresses.
  • Lonely at the Top: So Caine, you finally rule Perdido Beach. Congrats. Hey, how's Diana been recently?
  • Madness Mantra: "Hungry in the dark" becomes one in Hunger. Lana — a fellow former slave of the Gaiaphage — dredging it up despite having never heard him say it before is enough to freak him out.
  • Manipulative Bastard: His specialty is manipulating people.
  • Meaningful Name: His name is Caine. He's trying to kill his brother.
  • Mind over Matter: His power enables him to lift objects psychokinetically, although it has limits.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He's named after Cain and is an evil murderous brother. The only way the allusion could have been more obvious would be if Sam's name was Abel.
  • Name of Cain: Well...
  • Offing the Offspring: Teams up with Sam to kill his daughter Gaia in Light.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Fear he drops the narcissistic attitude after being tortured and humiliated by Penny and becomes quiet and insecure. Lana notes this is a sign he's finally snapped.
  • Parental Abandonment: His mother put him up for adoption and his foster parents neglected him.
  • Psychotic Smirk: In the US trailer for Plague, he delivers one of these once he realizes that the adults have disappeared.
  • Puppet King: To Albert, who runs Perdido Beach's economy.
    "It was no good to call yourself king if the real power was held by a owlish black kid"
  • Redemption Equals Death: Caine sacrifices himself to destroy the Gaiaphage once and for all.
  • Separated at Birth: He was Sam's brother, but they were separated at birth.
  • The Sociopath: According to Word of God he is remorseless.
  • Taking the Heat: At the end of Light, he leaves a letter claiming he was the one behind all the bad things that happened in the FAYZ.
  • Teen Pregnancy: Gets Diana pregnant, which ends up causing problems for everyone when the baby is taken over by the Gaiaphage.
  • Token Evil Teammate: In Fear and Light he joins forces with Sam.
  • Unholy Matrimony: With Diana. Quite hilariously the most popular ship, with a much larger, more vocal and dedicated fan base than Sastrid which is you know, the heroic couple. The main couple.
  • We Want Our Jerk Back!: In Fear, when the barrier turns entirely black and no one can see a thing, Perdido Beach needs someone like Caine that scares the kids and can control them through fear. Unfortunately, he was still heavily traumatized after Penny cemented his hands.
    Lana: "You gotta give the guy credit; he has a genius for doing the wrong thing. We actually need him to be the bad guy, and now he's Mr. Meek and Mild."
  • Would Hit a Girl: Especially if it's his own daughter.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Tries to smash a helicopter full of them into a cliff.

Diana Ladris

"You'll never have complete control, Caine. This world is changing all the time. Animals. People. Who knows what's next? We didn't' make this world, we're just the poor fools who are living in it."

Caine's chief assistant and love interest, Diana is beautiful, snarky, and manipulative. Out of all the consistently villainous characters in the series, she voices the most hesitations about overly evil tendencies and remains openly on her own side, rather than Caine's or Sam's.

  • Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Described as having darker features, and even before the Gone series takes place, she has an air of confidence and is a lot more reserved than anyone at Coates Academy.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: In Lies she tells Caine she loves him... before launching herself off a cliff.
  • Anti-Hero: In Light she is forced to help Gaia, despairing that she is nothing more than a monster and wishing to be put out of her misery.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With Caine. Most prominent in Light.
  • Break the Haughty: Pretty much the entirity of her storyline. Though she does get a happy- albeit bittersweet ending eventually in Light.
  • Cassandra Truth: Many, many times.
    • In Gone, she warns Caine to let the freaks go, or there will be trouble. He doesn't, and there is most definitely trouble. Later, she tries to persuade him to make a truce with Sam, claiming that they need a alliance so they have some food. She also says that if Caine fights Sam, he will definitely lose. Of course, he ignores her warnings, and he loses against Sam, and also has a lot of trouble finding food in Hunger.
    • She also warns Caine of the perils of feeding the Gaiaphage in Hunger. Again, ignoring her pleas has consequences for everyone involved.
    • She strongly advises Caine against leaving the island in Plague, which Caine comes to deeply regret rebuffing in the subsequent books.
    • In Fear, she stresses to Sam her fears that Gaia is not a normal baby. Guess who ignores her and unwittingly dooms her to a torturous birth in which the Gaiaphage is incarnated in human form?
    • Finally in Light, she tries to warn everyone of Gaia coming to destroy Lake Tramonto. And of course they listen to her and evacuate. Oh wait. Astrid just tells her to shut up. Big consequences indeed.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Constantly refers to herself as a "bad girl," although it's unclear if this is a reference to her status as a villain, which she seems to resist, or the reputation she mentions having in Plague.
  • Damsel in Distress: In Fear and Light, Caine's main motivation for his Hazy-Feel Turn is to rescue Diana from Gaia and Drake.
  • Deliver Us from Evil: What prompts her High-Heel–Face Turn is the fear that her baby might be a monster.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Even to Drake and Caine.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the suffering she endures, Diana gets a happy ending, be it bittersweet. Though she does lose Caine, and it is heavily implied to have shaken her up badly, she does end up making life-long friends with Sam, Astrid, and Dekka and it's made clear she is now safe, healthy, and above all happy.
  • Enigmatic Minion: She is Caine's underling, but also his love interest and is not above going behind his back to accomplish her own goals.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Caine is infatuated with her, and they eventually become lovers.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: She's definitely not a nice person, but Caine's worse plans get her upset, and eating Panda in Lies really shakes her up.
    • She also almost kills herself to prevent Caine from smashing a helicopter full of kids into a cliff.
  • Evil Counterpart: Deconstructed throughout the series. At first, she plays it straight with Astrid. Even their hair colors highlight this.
    • It begins to be subverted quite deliciously in Plague when Diana ends up performing a Heel–Face Turn, just as Astrid starts going off the deep end.
    • And finally averted in Light. They actually both end the series as protagonists and furthermore, friends.
  • Fille Fatale: To some extent, although, in the FAYZ, fourteen isn't that young.
  • High-Heel–Face Turn: Zig-Zagged. Throughout the series, she's probably the least outwardly loyal Coates kid, often to the point of sabotaging their plans, but is all the only one that actually cares about Caine. She stays even after half the team Heel Face Turns but is openly critical of how things are being done. Finally, in Plague, she leaves for good, but that's mainly because she's pregnant, not out of a change of heart. But she remains on her own side the whole time, so there's no technical change. Lampshaded repeatedly and viciously in Fear.
  • Honey Trap: This is how she manipulates people, most notably Jack in Hunger. It's also debatable that she's doing this to Caine the entire time, although it's pretty much thrown out the window in Light.
  • Important Haircut: She shaves her head in Hunger in order to bring Jack back.
  • Kick the Morality Pet: Caine regrets doing this in Fear, though it seems the damage to his relationship with Diana is done.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Lampshaded by many characters, including herself. The more the books go on and the more she develops as a character, the more it becomes clear that this reputation may be undeserved.
  • Morality Pet: Is this for Caine, at least through Lies.
  • Non-Action Snarker: One of the few non-Action Girl of the series, yet a total Deadpan Snarker
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Objects to mindless violence, such as letting the coyotes eat the children at the end of Gone or crashing island kids' helicopter in Lies, partly on the basis that they're not serving any purpose.
  • Pregnant Hostage: In Fear the Gaiaphage has Drake kidnap and bring her to it so it while she's pregnant so it can steal her baby.
  • Really Gets Around: Had this reputation before the FAYZ. However, since she and Caine only starting having sex in Plague, it's entirely possible this reputation is undeserved.
  • Random Power Ranking: Her power enables her to detect how powerful other mutants are.
  • Sarcastic Devotee: To Caine. She'll badmouth him as badly as she does anyone else, but she's still loyal to him.
  • Slut-Shaming: Is quite often - and unfairly - the victim of this, both in-universe and in the fandom.
  • Sour Outside, Sad Inside: The chapters from her POV show that her sarcastic bitchiness is a front for a miserable girl full of self-loathing.
  • Stepford Snarker: Speculated among the fandom to be this. She even admits it herself in Light, admitting that it was easier for her to be snarky and cruel tongued than it was for her to just break down and cry.
  • Suddenly Ethnicity: Word of God only stated she was Hispanic in an interview, leaving her Ambiguously Brown in-universe.
  • Teen Pregnancy: In Plague, she becomes pregnant with Caine's child.
  • The Tease: She has a reputation of being promiscuous and exploits it to manipulate people.
  • Trauma Conga Line: The stuff she goes through in the latter half of the series is depressing.
  • Unholy Matrimony: She start off as Caine's somewhat-girlfriend, and officially hooks up with him midway through the series.

Drake Merwin

Drake: It's not about who's got powers, moron. It's about who's not afraid. And who's going to do what has to be done.

Caine's second-in-command, Drake is viewed as the most evil of the kids in the FAYZ. Has no apparent goals aside from whipping anyone he comes into contact with to death.

  • An Arm and a Leg: After Sam burns his right arm, he is forced to get amputated by Diana. The Gaiaphage later replaces it with a tentacle.
  • Arch-Enemy: Brianna, who is obsessed with killing him.
  • Ax-Crazy: Drake is a sadistic psychopathic serial killer who delights in torturing and killing everyone he comes across.
  • Back from the Dead: Caine kills him in Hunger, but he comes back fused with Brittany. After dying again in Light, he comes back in Monster after the remaining meteorites the Gaiaphage spawned from come to Earth.
  • Badass Normal: Before becoming Whip Hand he was still the most dangerous normal person in Perdido Beach.
  • Berserk Button: Is quite good at pushing these.
    • When Diana speculated that the reason he hated women was that he learned his mother was a whore, Drake went ballistic and whipped her to the point of fainting. Yikes.
  • Body Horror: He has his head fused with the rear end of a lizard after Gaia is forced to put him back together.
  • Bullying the Dragon: During Hunger he constantly antagonizes Caine and eventually provokes him by trying to kill Diana. The result? Getting thrown into a mine shaft by Caine and then burried alive.
  • Came Back Wrong: After being killed by Caine, he's resurrected by the Gaiaphage, but is Sharing a Body with Brittany.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Drake never attempts to justify his crimes in any way and directly calls himself evil at one point.
  • Combat Sadomasochist: Leers while pulling a knife out of himself. Of course, he is immortal, so...
  • Combat Tentacles: Acquires a ten foot-long crimson tentacle courtesy of the Gaiaphage and Lana in Gone, earning him the moniker "Whiphand".
  • Deal with the Devil: He becomes the Gaiaphage's Sycophantic Servant until it incarnates as Gaia.
  • The Dragon: To Caine until the end of Hunger. He then becomes the loyal servant of the Gaiaphage afterwards.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: He is constantly plotting to screw over his current ally for his own benefit.
  • The Dreaded: Everyone is scared of him, and with good reason.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Believe it or not, this appears to be the case, or at least it was in the past. Seeing his stepfather abuse his mother messed him up a lot and is implied to be behind his Straw Misogynist attitude.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Even he is creeped out by Penny's behavior.
  • For the Evulz: As Drake pridefully admits, he is motivated by nothing more than his sadistic urges.
  • Groin Attack: When he threatens to rape Brianna, she destroys his severed genitals and mocks him.
  • Handicapped Badass: For a very short time.
  • Hated by All: Every person who has ever met Drake despises him for what a monster he is.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Drake's plan to deal with speedster Brianna is to string up thin wires that'll cut her apart when she runs into them at a couple hundred miles an hour. Brianna takes this idea and runs with it. Into Drake.
  • In the Blood: Drake's grandfather has the same chilling darkness in his gaze that Drake does, creeping out Connie Temple when she meets him.
  • Insult Backfire: Threatens to rape Brianna after she slices him to pieces and later on Astrid as a severed head. They simply snark at him that he lacks the equipment necessary to do so, mainly because Brianna crushes his genitals when he first makes the threat.
  • Jerkass: Not only his he a psychopath, he likes being an asshole about it too.
  • Killed Off for Real: In Hero he decides to go after Astrid, who uses her newly attained superhuman strength and durability to rip him apart and dissolves him in corrosive material to prevent him from regenerating, tossing what's left into the depths of the ocean just to be on the safe side.
  • Lack of Empathy: To an extreme degree. He is a psychopath, after all.
  • Lovecraftian Superpower: The Gaiaphage uses Lana to give Drake a six-foot long prehensile tentacle in place of his severed arm. After he's resurrected in Brittany's body he becomes able to regenerate in a nightmarish fashion, and after he is cut to pieces by Brianna his severed foot is discovered to have sprouted tentacles it was using for locomotion, seeking out the rest of his scattered body parts.
  • Meaningful Name: Drake means dragon.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He's named after a flying fire-breathing lizard.
  • No One Could Survive That!: We never get conformation that he died in Hunger, but everyone feels it's pretty safe to assume since they put a bar of pure Uranium through his heart. But then Lies rolled around and he came back from the dead.
  • Not Quite Dead: Drake's original death was undone by the Gaiaphage somehow implanting him into Brittany, who was undead and could regenerate. Breeze chops his body to pieces — each of which independently survives — and Gaia attaches his severed head to the new body. Drake's head dies when Gaia does, but Monster reveals that he reconstituted himself from his scattered body parts and is still at large.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Has three big ones in Light: When Brianna dices him to pieces and scatters them across the FAYZ, leaving only his head intact and fused with a lizard; when he realizes Gaia knows he's daydreaming of assaulting her; and when he finally starts to fall apart after Gaia's death.
    • In Hero, Drake panics when Astrid reveals she has superhuman strength and durability, which she summarily uses to kill him for good.
  • One-Man Army: Especially post-resurrection, Drake is capable of taking on any number of ordinary humans, even when they're armed with machine guns.
  • Pet the Dog: They're small, but when Brittany does something right for him, he will praise her.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Drake is raging misogynist, hating all women, and he also refers to Dekka as a homophobic slur.
  • Psycho for Hire: Whilst getting his arm cut off, Drake mentions that he would rather die than live without a right arm. Caine, however, "needs him" and "keeps him" because he likes to hurt people.
  • Psycho Supporter: For The Gaiaphage, at least until it incarnates in the body of a girl.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: While he doesn't actually do anything, he threatens to rape Brianna after she cuts him to pieces. She simply smashes his... equipment right in front of him. He later threatens to rape Astrid as a severed head, but she laughs in his face and shuts him in a water cooler. He also fantasizes about assaulting Gaia, and pays for it when she reads his mind and is not amused. After coming Back from the Dead in Monster, rape was listed among his crimes.
  • Red Baron: Earns the moniker Whip Hand".
  • Resurrected Murderer: Drake, a sadistic teenager with a whip for a hand he likes to use to torture people to death, is killed in the second book, but his severed whip hand gets attached to Brittney, a girl who has the power to come Back from the Dead. As a result, he ends up resurrected while Sharing a Body with Brittney.
  • Sadist: He greatly enjoys hurting people, and in the sequel series his lair is "decorated" with the bodies of victims he's tortured to death.
  • Serial Killer: After he returns in Monster he's revealed to have become one by abducting random people and torturing them to death.
  • Slasher Smile: His smile is described as 'showing too many teeth with too little humour'.
  • Sharing a Body: With Brittany following his resurrection. She suffers a Death of Personality in Light, being relegated to a face on his chest that is used as a mouthpiece for the Dark Watchers that formerly communicated through the Gaiaphage.
  • The Sociopath: He's explicitly referred to as one throughout the series, and he is more than happy to demonstrate why he qualifies.
  • The Starscream: It's clear from his first perspective chapters that he's disloyal to Caine, although he probably didn't plan on splitting so soon. He also attempts it with the Gaiaphage in Light as a result of his misogyny, although he doesn't succeed.
  • Straw Misogynist: The source behind his hatred for Diana, Astrid, and Brittany. He even betrays the Gaiaphage because it takes a female body as a host.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Yes, Drake. Fantasize about mutilating and raping the girl possessed by an Eldritch Abomination who you swore to serve and who possesses a psychic link to you.
  • Villain Ball:
    • Realizing that calling Diana a bitch in front of Caine is a bad idea? Great job. Then you decide to Whip her, throw her into the air and drop her onto a rock because she yelled at you? Really?
    • The way he openly displays a sadistic lust for Gaia in Light wasn't terribly bright either, and she tortures him when she catches him fantasizing about raping and killing her.
  • Vitriolic Best Friends: Not really best friends, but he's formed a bond (no pun intended) with Brittany as of Fear.
  • Walk, Don't Swim: One of the benefits of being undead is that he can walk undetected along the bottom of bodies of water.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Gets a sadistic joy out of it, too.

Computer Jack

A technical genius, Computer Jack was sent to Coates Academy after hacking into a police database to cancel a friend's father's speeding ticket. He's used to being used for his intelligence, although he shows signs of resenting it.

Dekka Talent/Lesbokitty

Sam: There aren't going to be any lines like that, between freak and normal.
Dekka: Sam, that's a great concept. And maybe you believe it. But I'm black and I'm a lesbian, so let me tell you: From what I know? Personal experience? There are always lines.

One of the Coates kids imprisoned by Caine for refusing to cooperate with his plans, she soon becomes Sam's second-in-command.

  • Abusive Parents: Her father slapped her twice when he found out she was a lesbian.
  • Action Girl: Dekka is not afraid to use her gravity powers in combat, and after she becomes a Rockborn 2.0 she's able to turn into a cat-monster with a sonic scream ability.
  • The Big Guy: Occasionally fills this role, mostly in Gone and Hunger, after which she went into full Lancer territory.
  • Berserk Button: Brianna, even more so than Jack.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Her's in particular: She survives...but Brianna is dead and her parents still don't accept her lesbianism. Brianna's parent's give her a photo of her that she places by her bedside.
  • Butch Lesbian: A less stereotypical version than others. She demonstrates some masculine traits and isn't very feminine, but she's developed beyond this.
  • Discard and Draw: DARPA exposes her to the mutagenic virus that the Gaiaphage originated from in an attempt to reactivate her gravity powers. Instead it turns her into a gorgon-like cat-snake hybrid with the ability to shred things by screaming.
  • Dogged Nice Girl: A Type 2 for Brianna, as she confesses her love when she's afraid of dying but it goes unrequited.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: With Sam, as she becomes one of his steadfast companions.
  • Gayngst: Justified due to all the bigotry she's got from even her own parents about her orientation, and being in love with her straight best friend.
  • Gravity Master: Her power allows her to eliminate gravity in an area. She can also use this to levitate slightly.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Does not like Jack due to thinking he and Brianna are a couple.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Comes to accept that she is this with Brianna, minus the heterosexual part on Dekka's end.
  • Incompatible Orientation: Is this with Brianna, but partially gets over it as of Fear.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Computer Jack. Partly because she is jealous of his sort-of-relationship with Brianna, and partly because she has many, many doubts about his morals.
  • The Lancer: She eventually becomes Sam's most trusted ally.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to Brianna after the events of Plague.
  • The Stoic: Usually. Subverted/deconstructed heavily in Plague.
  • Twofer Token Minority: She’s black, she’s a lesbian, and she’s a superpowered mutant.
  • Why Can't I Hate You??: Eventually begins to feel this way towards Jack.

Brianna Berenson/The Breeze

Breeze: "When you get to hell, tell the Gaiaphage the Breeze says 'Hi!'"

Imprisoned with Dekka and the other Coates mutants through most of Gone, Brianna was among the first to enlist in Sam's side. She possesses the ability to run extremely fast and is generally aggressive and energetic.

  • Alliterative Name: Though her last name is only revealed in the Sequel Series.
  • Ambiguously Bi: Outright states in Fear that she doesn't know what her sexual orientation is, and while she seems a little "grossed out" by Dekka's love for her, she did say that maybe in a few years they could date but now she isn't ready for any sort of commitment. While she's shown no outward interest in dating girls, she also doesn't seem to be too bothered by her sort-of boyfriend Jack, with their few moments of intimacy were said to be awkward and spawned out of boredom, leaving Brianna's sexuality a mystery for the ages.
    • Michael Grant has outright said that Brianna and Dekka are "one of the true pairs" despite them never actually being together.
  • Action Girl: Uses her super-speed very efficiently in combat.
  • Better as Friends: The conclusion she and Dekka come to.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Starts screaming in victory after chopping Drake into pieces. Not so much when he puts himself together again...
  • Child Soldiers: Is one, and likes it.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Brianna's rashness catches up to her when she gets a Torso with a View courtesy of Gaia.
  • Cute and Psycho: Comes off as this by the end of the series, particularly when she gets a chance to interview the adults outside the FAYZ and seems way too enthusiastic about the idea of fighting and killing, while leaving out the fact that she never actually killed a human.
  • Cute Bruiser: She's a young girl, she's very efficient in combat.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Dekka is in love with her.
  • Fiery Redhead: She's an aggressive redhead who revels in her powers and fancies herself a superhero.
  • Fragile Speedster: If she runs into anything, she'll probably smash up her legs, and if she trips while running at Super-Speed, she'll break a lot of bones. Exploited in Hunger when Drake sets up cheese-wire, so that if she tries to burst in, she'll be cut into pieces.
  • Genki Girl: When she's not running around screaming with guns.
  • Good Is Dumb: While not dumb per say, Brianna makes a lot of stupid decisions. Repeatedly charging Gaia despite lacking a left eye/depth perception is one of them.
  • Little Miss Badass: The obvious example in the series.
  • Love Triangle: At the center of one between Jack and Dekka, although she has no idea of the latter's feelings for her until Plague.
  • More Deadly Than the Male: Compared to Computer Jack, anyway.
  • Motor Mouth: Does everything fast, including speaking.
  • No Last Name Given: Her last name is never revealed.
    • Until Monster, where it's revealed to be Berenson.
  • Oblivious to Love: Dekka's feelings were pretty obvious, especially since, as her best friend, Brianna was probably aware of Dekka's lesbianism, which seems to be fairly common knowledge in Perdido Beach Tossed out of the window as of Fear.
  • Oh, Crap!: has one in Plague when Drake reassembles himself and a whole slew of them in Fear: 1) she can't run in the dark or she'll break her legs, 2) when she realizes she can't save Diana's baby and 3) when Penny joins Drake.
    • In Light she has one moments before her death.
  • Speed Demon: Brianna has Super-Speed and is very proud and smug about it, enjoying her ability to play the superhero and defeat others in fights with her speed.
  • Staring Down Cthulhu: Does this to Drake in Plague. Subverted by the fact that Drake doesn't back down. He just breaks her ankles.
    • Does this to Gaia in Light. However, this time leads directly to her death.
  • Super-Speed: Her power enables her to run faster than the human eye can follow.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Everyone has this, but by Plague, she seems to enjoy her work as a Child Soldier. She gets called out for bragging about it in front of the outside world's media in Light.

Penny

Penny: I am fear!

Introduced in Lies, Penny is a twelve-year-old with the ability to make people visualise their nightmares and dreams and acts as The Dragon for Caine after Drake's betrayal.

  • Ax-Crazy: After Jumping Off the Slippery Slope in Fear, she turns on Caine and tortures him.
  • Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Has gone completely off the deep end by Fear, and loves it.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: She has a crush on Caine and is jealous of Diana.
  • Dark Action Girl: While her powers aren't physically offensive, she is more than happy to drive her enemies insane.
  • Depraved Bisexual: She implies that she indulged Taylor's fantasies in return for sugar and some hot chocolate. She's also gotten it on with Turk, Howard, and who-knows-how-many others.
  • Disabled Snarker: As of Plague, although not a very funny one. She gets better. Physically, that is. Mentally, on the other hand...
  • The Dragon: To Caine, following Drake's defection.
  • Freudian Excuse: She felt left out and ignored her entire life, although in an interesting zigzag, it would probably be worse for her if she wasn't ignored - her dad was taking naked pictures of her sisters.
  • Good Powers, Bad People: Because of how lifelike her illusions are, she can use them to make people happy. Instead, she gives people pleasant visions only to snatch them away so she could torture them.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Hates Diana, who's actually grudgingly nice to her.
  • It's All About Me: She hates it when people get more attention than her. This was demonstrated when she put drain cleaner in her sister's cereal because she was tired of her getting so much sympathy for getting sexually abused.
  • Jerkass: She is a monstrous person and regrets none of it.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: She's never been entirely mentally healthy, but she goes completely insane in Fear.
  • Master of Illusion: Her power enables her to cause visual and auditory hallucinations.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Her illusions really shake up Diana in Fear.
  • Pervert Dad: Her dad took naked pictures of her sisters and posted them online.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Implies that she prostituted herself using her illusion powers to comply with other peoples' fantasies.
  • Really Gets Around: Is revealed to use her powers for more than creating nightmares in Fear.
  • The Sociopath: She almost rivals Drake in that department.
  • The Starscream: In Fear she turns on Caine and actually pulls it off for a bit.
  • Sycophantic Servant: To Caine. Viciously Subverted in Fear, when Penny finally realizes that she'll never gain his respect or affections. The realization becomes baaad news for Caine.
  • Villainous Crush: On Caine. Well, until Fear, that is.
  • Yandere: Gives off this vibe, but, while she's willing to commit atrocities for Caine, she's never actually tried to kill Diana, possibly because she's aware it would result in Caine killing her.

Bug

Given name Tyler, Bug has the power of camouflage and acts as Caine's spy. Looked on as something of a creep.

  • Abusive Parents: Implied to have had these.
  • Big Eater: Caine loves Diana, Penny loves Caine, Bug loves candy.
  • Blame Game: After the FAYZ ends he tells the media that everything bad that happened was Sam's fault.
  • Demotedto Extra: In Plague. Though his power is a brief plot point in Light since Gaia can access other moof's powers.
  • Invisibility: His power allows him to turn almost invisible, but you can still spot him if you know he's there.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Exploits this to spy on Diana getting changed.

Taylor

Dekka: "Oh, and by the way, I brought a gun."
Taylor: "OMG, are we going to be in danger?"
Dekka: "No, Taylor. The gun is in case you get on my nerves."

One of the mutants rescued from Coates Academy in Gone, Taylor has the power of teleportation, with a weight limit.

     The Human Crew 
A anti-freak movement dedicated to killing those with 1 bar powers or above. Instigated in HUNGER and finally ended in PLAGUE.

Tropes involving the whole of the human crew.

Zil Sperry

Resentful and jealous of the perceived special treatment for mutants, Zil starts a group of Fantastic Racists determined to make life in the FAYZ worse.

  • Ambiguously Bi: He leers after Nerezza and has a girlfriend, but he spends half his time obsessing over his magnificent, cool, handsome friend Lance.
  • Egopolis: Wanted to rename Perdido Beach Sperry beach after burning it down and enslaving all the freaks.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: He desperately wants to be special and a hero instead of being overshadowed by his brother, and convinces himself that what he is doing is very heroic.
  • Smug Snake: Extremely so.
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: His older brother's name, Zane, while not common, is normal enough, but Zil? Meaning, nothing?

Lance

Once popular, now a member of the Human Crew on whom its leader may or may not have a crush.

  • Broken Ace: Once popular, smart, and athletic. Now a wannabe-Nazi.

Antoine

One of the Human Crew's members

Hank

One of the Human Crew's more violent members.

Lisa

A member of the Human Crew, dating Zil.

Turk

A member of the Human crew disliked even by the other members.

  • Beauty Equals Goodness: While this is averted with most Human Crew members and actually most of the series' villains, Turk is described as being rat-like and ugly.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: More out of fear than anything else since he watched Caine brutally kills Lance

     The Island Kids 

Sanjit/ Wisdom Brattle-Chance

Sanjit: I am Sanjit the invincible!

Virtue "Choo" Brattle-Chance

Peace, Pixie, and Bowie Brattle-Chance

     Others 

Orsay Pettijohn

  • Break the Cutie: Pre-FAYZ she was the lonely, homeschooled only child whose father never paid any attention to her, and was left confused about the disturbing dreams she saw. In HUNGER she is threatened with being killed and eaten, is enslaved by Caine, starved and the Gaiaphage causes her to nearly bite off her tongue. In LIES, she is manipulated by Nerezza to giving false prophecies, these prophecies involve her electrocuting herself on the barrier and she is strangled to death. Break the cutie, indeed.
  • Call-Back: She recalls a time where she snuck up on a group of kids (whom she'd later discover where Sam, Astrid, Little Pete, Edilio and Quinn) and read their dreams. This was a Call-Back to the camp-out scene in the first book.
  • Dirty Mind-Reading: Remarks that people would often dream about having sex, much to her dismay.
  • Dream Reading: Her power.
  • Homeschooled Kids: Was homeschooled by her father before the FAYZ.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Decides to befriend evil incarnate. Bad idea.
  • A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: She remains traumatized after seeing Drake's ones.
  • Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Stayed by herself in her dad's abandoned hotel for 5 months before getting the courage to explore the FAYZ, something which Drake found suspicious, but she appears to be a very sweet, if somewhat gullible, girl.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She just wants to help everyone, but she ends up driving several teenagers to (probable) suicide before getting strangled herself.
  • Tomboyish Ponytail
  • Unwitting Pawn: In Lies, she is made to believe she is the great phophetess by Nerezza, when in reality, she's being used to drive kids to suicide.

Toto

A boy found at the air force base in Plague. One of the first children discovered to have powers and was being held captive by government agents.

  • Living Lie Detector: States whether something is "true" or "false" after hearing any statement. Any statement. Whether you want him to or not.

Ellen

The fire chief.

  • Ship Tease: With Edilio. Jossed as of Fear. He's gay and taken

Pack Leader

The leader of all coyotes in Perdido Beach.

  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's in charge because he's the strongest and smartest coyotes, Cain exploits this by implying that the rest of the pack might turn on him if he chickens out on the Final Battle of the first book.
  • The Dragon: He was this to The Darkness before Drake, leading the coyotes for it.
  • Kill All Humans: He wishes to do this and keeps Lana alive because he thinks she can help him with this.
  • Legacy Character: The original Pack Leader was killed, and Drake laments that his replacement was far less of a sycophant to the Gaiaphage.
  • Mook Lieutenant: He's in charge of all coyotes.
  • Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: He and his coyotes flee the daycare once Sam and Dekka attack.
  • Speech-Impaired Animal: His speech is very garbled and his grammar is odd, justified as he gained speech through mutation.

The Gaiaphage/The Darkness/Nerezza/Gaia

Gaiaphage: "When Nemesis is gone, there will be no other like me. Just me alone. I will grow and spread, one body and then another, and soon there will be so many of me that it will be impossible to eradicate me. Eventually all will be me, and I will be all."

  • Agony Beam: What it uses to keep its servants in particular Drake in Light in line.
  • All Your Powers Combined: As Gaia, it possesses all the powers of the moofs, so long as they're still alive.
  • And Then What?: When Gaia expresses the intent to infect and take over all of humanity, Diana asks what she'd do then considering she wouldn't have anyone to spout evil monologues to, would be committing selfcest, and would be bored. Gaia mulls this over and acquiesces to leave a few humans uninfected to terrorize.
  • Antagonistic Offspring: As Gaia, it is Caine's and Diana's daughter.
  • Ax-Crazy: As Gaia, it taps into the emotions of joy and bloodlust and puts two and two together.
  • Big Bad: Seems to be, for all intents and purposes, evil incarnate.
  • Big Eater: As Gaia she is constantly hungry due to her rapid maturation.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: EVERY battle Gaia gets into in Light turns into one of these.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: When it manifests as Nerezza.
  • Eldritch Abomination: A sentient, radiation-eating, reality-warping virus melded with human DNA, specifically that of Sam's and Caine's father.
  • Enfant Terrible: In its new form as Diana's daughter Gaia in Fear, and during most of Light. Close to the end, having grown into a teenager, she no longer qualifies.
  • Fille Fatale: As Gaia, she briefly tries to seduce Sam over to the dark side in Light, and when that fails she simply curb-stomps him. She also notes that Drake is having an increasingly hard time following her orders as she ages and is fantasizing about mutilating and possibly raping her, and taunts him about it while punishing him.
  • Glass Cannon: As Gaia, in spite of all her powers, her body is just as fragile as that of any other human.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Tends to make people do this when they see its true form. Just ask Caine and Brittney.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: The Gaiaphage was originally an artificial virus created by a faraway race of beings that worshipped life. They infected a moon with the virus and exploded it, intending for the infected fragments to seed life onto barren worlds. Unfortuately for Perdido Beach, a fragment crashed into the nuclear power plant, the radiation began to mutate both it and warp the very fabric of reality, giving rise to the kids' powers, killing a power plant worker, and eventually causing the FAYZ itself.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: While Caine fills the Big Bad role in individual plotlines, particularly in Gone, the Gaiaphage is this in the series as a whole.
  • Hero Killer: More so than Drake, as it is responsible for the FAYZ itself and personally kills several main characters in Light.
  • Horror Hunger: Suffers from this in Light due to her rapid aging.
  • Humanity Is Infectious: Possessing Diana's daughter gave the Gaiaphage an understanding of human emotions. Unfortunately for everyone, this turns it into a bloodthirsty sadist.
  • Humanoid Abomination: As Nerezza in Lies and when it possesses Diana's daughter, Gaia in Fear.
  • Hypnotic Creature: It can control people's minds from a distance - just ask Lana or Caine.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: In Light, as mentioned above. It's not quite cannibalism, as she's not technically human, despite looking like one.
  • The Juggernaut: Gaia possesses all the still-living moofs' powers, making her virtually unstoppable. However, as she kills them she loses their powers at inopportune moments - super speed while running, super strength while lifting a really heavy object - and winds up shooting herself in the foot.
  • Load-Bearing Boss: It is revealed in Fear that Little Pete used its biomass to create the sphere containing the FAYZ. When it dies the dome goes down and the FAYZ ends.
  • Meaningful Name: "Gaiaphage" means "world-eater" or "earth-eater". Oh, and Nerezza is Italian for "darkness".
  • The Alien Behind the Man: To Caine in Hunger.
  • Mind Rape: Inflicts this on Lana and Caine, and uses it as a means of punishing Drake when he displeases her or she catches him fantasizing about assaulting her.
  • Mutual Kill: In Light, with Little Pete (who had taken over Caine's body).
  • My Own Grampa: Gaia is a weird version of this, seeing as the gaiaphage was formed from the combination of an alien virus and human DNA from Sam and Caine's father.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: No matter what you call this guy — Darkness, Gaiaphage, Nerezza — it does not sound inviting. Gaia is a bit better, but considering what it's abbreviated from...
  • Not Quite Dead: In Monster, Agent Peaks reveals that remaining traces of it survived in the old mine, attracting the scum of the earth to Perdido Beach and driving anyone who comes into contact with it insane.
  • One-Man Army: As Gaia she Curb Stomp Battles anyone who annoys her.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: To a ridiculous degree as Gaia. Among other things, she takes a shotgun blast to the chest at near point-blank range and a machete to the carotid artery, inflicted within less than a minute of each other, is set on fire by Sam's lasers, and in the final battle takes a hit from a missile (although Orc was in the way of the blast).
  • Rapid Aging: After it takes over the body of Diana's newborn daughter in Fear, the resulting entity, Gaia, reaches a form of a 2-year-old child in around 4-5 hours. Over the following few days, she continues aging until she looks around 15 years old by the time she dies in Light.
  • Sadist: As Gaia. This is especially evident during her attack on the lakeside, during which she suspends twenty kids in the air with Dekka's powers and incinerates them one by one, taking the time to savor their fear.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Gaia looks very much like a blue-eyed Diana, especially after her supernaturally fast aging leaves her looking like a teenager. This resemblance is the main catalyst for the situation with Drake mentioned above.
     Adults 

Connie Temple

The mother of Sam and Caine.

  • Action Mom: She turns out to be pretty badass when we see her on the other side of the FAYZ in Fear.
  • Mama Bear: Don't even think about bombing the anomaly that contains her son. She will not let you get away with it.
  • Missing Mom: She's stuck on the other side of the FAYZ.
  • My Beloved Smother: Sort of; she isn't spoken about very highly in Sam or Caine's POV chapters.

Tom Temple

Sam Temple's step-dad, who walked out on the family shortly before the FAYZ after Sam accidentally burned his arm off

  • Hook Hand: This is what happens when Sam burned his arm off.

Introduced in the sequel series:

    ASO Mutants/Rockborn 2. 0 

Shade Darby

  • Broken Pedestal: Cruz looks up to her throughout Monster, but by the time of Villain realizes that Shade isn't someone to be idolized.
  • Genius Bruiser: Shade is intially a seventeen-year old girl with genius intellect, but infusing herself with the ASO virus gives her power as well.
  • The Mentally Disturbed: Her mother's death at the hands of Gaia left her traumatized, and she frequently becomes cold and withdrawn — described as being like a shark in human form.
  • Monstrous Humanoid: Exposure to the ASO virus infused her with flea DNA and gave her the ability to transform into a super-fast insectoid creature.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Malik being horrifically burnt as a result of her recklessness leads to her being overwhelmed by self-loathing in Villain.
  • Near-Death Experience: At the end of Hero, Shade is smashed to gory pieces while in her morphed form and very nearly dies, morphing back just in the nick of time.
  • Official Couple: Despite some light teasing with Cruz, she and Malik become a couple again in Villain.
  • Super-Speed: Her flea-hybrid form grants her the ability to run at speeds greatly surpassing even what the Breeze was capable of.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Shade's hero complex comes crashing down around her when Malik is badly injured during the battle between Abbadon and Napalm/Dragon, and Cruz finally lashes out at her for her recklessness.

Cruz Rojas

  • Ambiguous Gender Identity: Cruz is biologically male but non-binary — what Shade calls "multiple choice, but on a true-false test". She identifies as female over the course of the books, and dresses in a manner that makes Shade initially wonder whether she's a beautiful guy or a handsome girl. Her mutation also gave her glamour abilities based around her gender dysphoria.
  • Personality Powers: Rather than giving Cruz a monstrous form, exposure to the ASO virus gives her the ability to turn invisible and glamour herself to look like other people — embodying her gender dysphoria.

Aristotle "Armo" Admo/Berserker Bear

  • The Berserker: In his bestial state he is capable of fighting in a feral rage, using his powerful arms and razor-sharp claws to tear apart enemies.
  • It's All About Me: Even after his amnesia, he is very self-absorbed and refuses to do anything not framed as a request.
  • Monstrous Humanoid: He was infused with polar bear DNA, giving him the ability to transform into a humanoid bear-monster.
  • No-Sell: His Oppositional Defiant Disorder makes him immune to Dillon's Compelling Voice.

Justin DeVeere/Knightmare

  • Blade Below the Shoulder: The swordfish DNA infused into him by the alien virus granted his monstrous form an arm-blade capable of slicing through almost anything.
  • Boxed Crook: Brigadier General DiMarco forces Justin to work for her, surgically implanting a shock device that causes him crippling pain if he disobeys her orders.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He was legitimately distraught when he found out Erin died during his rampage.
  • Gollum Made Me Do It: He and his girlfriend Erin O'Day come up with the idea of framing Justin's monstrous form as a Superpowered Evil Side that he can't control, similarly to the Incredible Hulk.
  • Monstrous Humanoid: Exposure to swordfish and lobster DNA resulted in the ASO virus giving him the ability to turn into a bulky chitin-armored creature with a blade for one arm and a pincer for the other.
  • The Sociopath: He's described as being sociopathic — charming, manipulative, and completely lacking empathy. Unlike Drake, he's not particularly sadistic, though he has an eye for what he calls "art".
  • Trapped in Another World: His fate towards the end of Hero, with Rainbow warping him to the virtual space outside reality.

Thomas Peaks/Napalm/Dragon

  • Ate His Gun: How he commits suicide in Hero, he puts a shotgun in his mouth and blows his own brains out.
  • Ascended Fanboy: He was a fan of kaiju movies as a kid, which influenced his mutation into a gigantic fire-breathing reptilian monster when he consumed the ASO virus.
  • Driven to Suicide: In Hero, his guilt over accidentally killing innocent civilians causes him to kill himself.
  • Expy: His morphed form was inspired by kaiju movies, and Drake mockingly calls him Godzilla.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Peaks loves his wife and two daughters, and is worried about how they're being treated after he becomes a known criminal. Part of the reason he commits suicide is because he realizes he can't bare the way they might look at him after what he's done.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He is sickened by Drake's pointless sadism, and eventually stops working with him because of it.
  • Kaiju: He can transform into a massive reptilian monster — influenced by his love of Japanese monster movies — capable of vomiting liquid flames. He initially calls himself Napalm, but the media dubs him Dragon.
  • The Men in Black: He was in charge of a DARPA research facility called the Ranch, where he experimented with samples of the ASO meteor and turning crippled soldiers into cyborgs. After his rival, Brigadier General Gwendolyn DiMarco, takes over, the experiments become a lot worse.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: After accidentally setting Dillon Poe's hostages on fire, he flees in horror and shame. His guilt gets so bad that he eventually kills himself.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He desires revenge on Dekka Talent and Shade Darby for humiliating him, and on Brigadier General DiMarco for usurping his post.
  • Rogue Agent: After realizing his career is effectively over, he goes AWOL in Monster and takes a large dose of ASO meteor.

Vincent Vu/Abaddon

  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: When transformed, he's about 140 feet across from tentacle tip to tentacle tip.
  • Body Horror: Pretty much everything about him. The ASO virus he ate picked up DNA from starfish and from the densovirus that causes starfish wasting syndrome. Consequently, his morph is a titanic starfish creature that constantly sheds huge pieces of itself, which remain under his control. These pieces can also take over people's bodies, horribly mutilating them and turning them into Abaddon's puppets.
  • Combat Tentacles: He has two sets of them; the five huge ones on his starfish body, and dozens of smaller, poisonous ones emerging from the base of his torso. People taken over by pieces of him also sprout tentacles similar to the second variety.
  • Eldritch Abomination: In his monstrous form, Vincent's human torso protrudes out of a massive tentacled mass that secretes corrosive venom, can heal from almost any injury, and can independently control shed pieces of himself as offshoots.
  • Hearing Voices: As a symptom of his schizophrenia, Vincent has auditory hallucinations convincing him that he is the demon-lord Abaddon. When he ingests the ASO virus, the voices of the Dark Watchers get added onto that, and even converse with the voices in Vincent's head.
  • Insane Equals Violent: Vincent's schizophrenia — combined by the manic side of his bipolar disorder — makes it all-too easy for the Dark Watchers to manipulate him into carrying out wanton acts of violence as Abaddon.
  • Kill It with Fire: In Villain, he's immolated by the military using incendiary weapons.
  • The Mentally Disturbed: He suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, which causes him to believe that he is the demon Abaddon, destined to destroy humanity.

Dillon Poe/The Charmer

  • Compelling Voice: When morphed, Dillon can order anyone to do whatever he wants - though his powers don't work on other mutants.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Played with, but subverted. He doesn't kill people at first, but that's not out of any actual morality; he's just afraid to take that big of a step. Once he does so, he plunges into mass murder with gleeful abandon, causing far more carnage than even Drake or the Gaiaphage without a shred of remorse.
  • Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He considers himself an up-and-coming standup comedian, with the Dark Watchers as his audience. Given that they're amused by wanton violence and suffering, Dillon goes out of his way to cause just that.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Once Dillon discovers he has mind-control powers, he uses them to force a neo-Nazi to bite off his own tongue, tests his powers by causing mass-murder and chaos, and — with prompting from his short-lived sidekick — tries to take over the world, prompting an all-out military assault on Las Vegas.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He considers using his powers to force Saffron to have sex with him, but decides not to because he wants her to want him. Later, it's strongly implied that he rapes the cheerleaders under his control, or at least that he plans to do so.
  • Sadist: He has a deeply cruel and malicious sense of humor, even before he starts killing people.
  • Snake People: Villain's cover depicts him with the head of a cobra; though the novel compares him to the GEICO Gecko.
  • The Sociopath: Never expresses any remorse for his atrocities, or even any real concern for other people. He is also a smug, shallow person with no particular ambition beyond satisfying his own ego.
  • Spree Killer: Dillon Poe kills thousands of people across Vegas over the course a day.
  • Would Hurt a Child: While Dillon initially refuses to harm children, he later throws away this concern and thinks nothing of causing children to die such as ordering them to throw themselves under tanks or threatening to set them on fire along with the adults.

Francis Specter/Rainbow

  • Living MacGuffin: She's the only Rockborn invisible to the Dark Watchers, and is capable of accessing the plane of existence that they - and formerly Little Pete and the Gaiaphage - inhabit.
  • Magic Pants: Her clothes are affected by her phasing, though she's creeped out when Malik asks her if her Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing.
  • Meaningful Name: Francis can phase through dimensional boundaries, enabling her to walk around and through anything.

Simone Markovic

  • Second Love: She's implied to be one for Dekka Talent, as both are attracted to each other, though Hero's ending deliberately leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not they get together.
  • That Man Is Dead: She initially clings to the hope that her father can be redeemed, but eventually agrees with the others that he's too far gone.
  • Winged Humanoid: Her morph causes her to sprout countless tiny wings all over her body, letting her fly.

Bob Markovic/Vector

  • And I Must Scream: People infected with the diseases his bugs carry become so sick that they literally seethe with pestilence, but they do not die no matter how much damage the diseases do. They are in exactly as much pain as they appear to be, and spend most of their time desperately pleading for someone to kill them.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: It's hard to be anything but a supervillain when you are a giant swarm of bugs that can inflict a Fate Worse than Death on people.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Made his money running payday loan companies that took advantage of desperate people.
  • Big Bad: Of Hero.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite their conflicting viewpoints he cares about his daughter, Simone... at least at first. Once he loses his humanity and she turns on him, his love for her goes out the window.
  • Final Boss: Of the entire series.
  • Jerkass: Even before he transformed, he was a huge dick to basically everyone around him.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: His component bugs do not match up to any one species, and each one incorporates body parts from wildly different kinds of arthropod.
  • Plaguemaster: His bugs can infect people with a host of pathogens, although the combined cocktail always has the same effect.
  • Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Markovic's human body was killed at the moment he morphed. Because of this, his human body is permanently dead and he cannot change out of his bug-swarm morph.
  • Take Over the World: His ambition, starting with New York City.
  • The Worm That Walks: He is a swarm of bugs. Unusually for this trope, the bugs reproduce, meaning that he is constantly growing.

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