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1Characters of ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIBlewUpTheMoon'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIveGotHenchmen'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIHaveANemesis'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsYouBelieveHer'', ''Literature/IDidNOTGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIWorkForASupervillain'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImQueenOfTheDead'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImAGiantMonster'', ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsISavedTheWorldAgain'', and assorted short stories.
2
3[[foldercontrol]]
4
5!!The Inscrutable Machine
6
7[[folder:Bad Penny]]
8!!Penelope Justice Akk/Bad Penny/Penultimate/Meatbag Penny
9
10->''"I hadn't intended to be a legend as a supervillain, but now The Inscrutable Machine had a reputation to maintain, and a lot of fun to have in the process."''\
11
12The main viewpoint character, as well as MadScientist and leader of the group. She really, ''really'' wants to be a hero, but due to some bad luck with Miss A, that becomes less and less likely as the story goes on. Her power lets her intuitively create most anything she desires, though she has difficulty understanding precisely what she does. Her first invention was the Machine, a small insect-like device that wraps around her wrist, designed to recycle anything.
13----
14* TheApprentice: At the end of ''Henchmen'', [[spoiler:Spider offers her an apprenticeship (once she turns eighteen) to learn to organize other cities in the same way Spider has done for LA]].
15* AscendedFangirl: She was a major fan of Mech, another super/MadScientist. Then she got her own powers. Same type, just much, much stronger.
16* AwesomeButImpractical: In terms of raw inventing ability, she may well be the most powerful Mad Scientist of all time, but she still has only a tenuous control over what she ends up making when and can't duplicate her inventions. Not to mention that she's still got no clue ''how'' most of her devices work.
17* BagOfSpilling: She has a tendency to lose most of her inventions, culminating in the third book with her still mostly uncontrolled power going on a binge of combining things, leading to all the cool new stuff ending up wedged in a robot-zombie apocalypse machine.
18* CoolBike: Her Light Bike is a futuristic HardLight motorcycle that she can beam out of a device on her chest.
19* {{Curse}}: After getting her hands on a powerful artifact, she finds that any pennies she places in it become cursed. The artifact apparently bonded with her, so she's immune, but they make surprisingly potent offensive weapons, especially against magic users.
20* DoomsdayDevice: She combined her clock-controlling device (upgraded into everything-electronic-controller), her remote control robot, and her purloined universal repairer, resulting in a device that grabs anything technological nearby, combines it into robots and sends them out to find more things to assimilate. Thankfully, it is simply uninterested in organics such as innocent bystanders so danger to them is merely accidental.
21* EvilLaugh: Comes out whenever she's playing Bad Penny.
22* FlashStep: Her teleporter rings blur the line between true teleportation and moving very rapidly to the appearance of teleportation. Specifically, they (apparently) compress time so that she can travel any visible distance in the blink of an eye, with the caveat that it costs her stamina proportional to the distance traveled.
23* GamerChick: Penny is very into video games; the only book from her perspective to ''not'' have her playing a video game at multiple points is ''Moon''. She also usually wins multiplayer and takes the hard road in games while her friends take the easier game paths.
24* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: In ''Supervillain'', she bounces between villainy and trying to change to being a hero with an occasional neutral act before settling on being a villain. In the ''Moon'', she takes another stab at being a hero before causing mayhem in the [[spoiler: Jupiter colonies]], followed by another attempt at going hero in ''Henchmen'' which gets her forbidden from superpowered fights (while also downplaying her villainy to PokeThePoodle). Then in ''Nemesis'', she's almost a pure hero until the end, when [[spoiler: she gets ejected from her body]] and she takes a turn towards the brutal to win in ''Believe''. After her story ends, she shows up occasionally in other stories with no sign of villainy.
25* HomeNudist: While at home, she's [[DownplayedTrope comfortable being in just her underwear while reading in her room]]. Not played for {{Fanservice}} as she's only 13 at the time.
26* ImprovisedWeapon: In ''Henchmen'', she grabs a bag of chalk dust from a planning area for a football game and throws the dust on two fellow supers to exploit their weaknesses and force them to stop fighting.
27* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Her power doesn't like repeating itself, so if she breaks or loses an invention, she generally isn't getting it back.
28* FighterMageThief: In The Inscrutable Machine, her powers as a MadScientist let her fill in for the Mage to Ray's Fighter and Claire's Thief with her inventions granting utility comparable to the Mages in the series, but has the least physical prowess.
29* JekyllAndHyde: First Horseman theorizes she had a [[DownplayedTrope mild case]] of a split villainous personality, reinforced by a mind reader confirming they're almost the same.
30* TheLeader: Apparently, it's not uncommon for the MadScientist to be the leader of super teams. She's definitely the level-headed one of the trio, and her leadership is good enough that Mech assumes the name "the Inscrutable Machine" is a reference to their teamwork rather than their technology.
31* LyingByOmission: She is able to fool her LivingLieDetector Mother Beatrice "The Audit" Akk by setting up events so that she can make a true statement about a few of her actions (and ConfessToALesserCrime or use an InfractionDistraction in a pinch), letting her mother assume that she told her the entirety of her actions.
32* MadScientist: Mostly when she's in her MadnessPlace, but she does admit to enjoying the evil ranting even when she's not using her power. If her father's speculations are to be believed, she may be the most powerful mad scientist since UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla and he doesn't even know half of her inventions.
33* MetaphorIsMyMiddleName: The preview for the fourth book reveals that this is literal truth. [[spoiler:Penelope's middle name actually is Justice, which she lampshades]]. Crosses over into EmbarrassingMiddleName, of course.
34* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: She realizes near the end that nearly everything bad that happened in ''Moon'' can be blamed on her. She failed to notice Remmy's jealousy, failed to notice [[spoiler:that Juno was ObviouslyEvil]], and just let her power make whatever it wanted without thought of the consequences. If nothing else, she learned not to use biotech any more.
35* OutOfTheInferno: She walks through fire twice when surrounded by Ifrit's wall of fire:
36** In ''Supervillain'', Ifrit surrounds her with fire and then turns to debate with one of his allies. As shhe was wearing a jumpsuit specifically designed to withstand high heat and work with fire, she charges out of the fire to hit Ifrit with one of her MadScience weapons.
37** In ''Believe'', Ifrit uses his wall of fire to contain her, but this time [[spoiler:her mind was transferred into a fireproof robot]], so she's even more immune to fire than the first time.
38* PropheticName: She got nicknamed Bad Penny in her supervillainy career two heists before she started using actual cursed pennies, as well as without the public knowing her real name is Penny.
39* RefugeInAudacity: She relies on this heavily to prevent people from discovering her identity as Bad Penny. This is especially effective when dealing with her mother, as she analyzes ''everything'' based on probabilities. As long as Penelope Akk and Bad Penny being the same person remains a statistical outlier, she can get away with it without the Audit suspecting a thing.
40* RobotGirl: Penny constructs a robot and copies her consciousness into it in the fourth book. [[spoiler:At the end of the book, she's stuck inside the robot body]].
41* ScienceHero: Her inventions form the core of the team in every single way. Her Super Cheerleader Serum gave Ray powers and unlocked Claire's, her energy gloves give Ray his energy blasts, and her sticky gloves and frictionless pads give Claire her battlefield control and mobility.
42* TheSparkOfGenius: When she tries to put it into words, it all falls apart, but she can still get a handle on what she's doing if she just lets it happen. She also has a lot of difficulty making mundane objects or repeating inventions, which she finds annoying.
43* StupidityInducingAttack: Her cursed pennies make people reckless and stupid. It works best on magic-users (Marvelous forgets to keep her shield up when under its effect), but on more physical types it basically just acts as a Berserk spell. In ''Moon'', she finds them useful when paired with Archimedes, since the pennies also lower mental defenses and allow his mind control to be more effective.
44* TeleportSpam: She makes a set of teleportation bracelets, which she uses in battle to dodge around both attacks and enemies, often teleporting to one location then immediately to another as they try to keep her in sight.
45* TheUnmasking: Her identity is frequently discovered:
46** In ''Supervillain'', a speedster removes her face-concealing helmet in Chinatown in front of a large number of the villains in the city.
47** In ''Henchmen'', a group of her clubmates decide to attack Bad Penny, but she's not wearing anything on her face, so about half of them realize who she really is (the other half either had divination powers or had already seen her unmasked in ''Supervillain'').
48** In ''Nemesis'', it happens twice:
49*** Remmy calls her out by supervillain name while she's in her civilian identity, but only hospital doctors and nurses hear the altercation and one of the rules is they don't reveal identities.
50*** Her main plan is to create a robot version of herself in an overly-complicated scheme to force herself to unmask to her parents, and they know by the beginning of the next book.
51* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Her middle name is literally Justice. That's what you get for having two superheroes as parents.
52* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: At the end of ''Nemesis'', [[spoiler:a mysterious hero named Marianne releases her from her power's trap, but can't do much more because she doesn't know which is the real Penny. Marianne says that if she is the real Penny, she doesn't need any more help than that]].
53
54[[/folder]]
55
56[[folder:Reviled]]
57!!Ray Viles/Reviled
58
59->''"I would have expected a bar. I suppose that just shows off how new I am to this."''\
60
61Penny's male friend, known for his eternal grin and completely out of place British accent. After listening to Penny while she made the Super Cheerleader Serum, he drank the rest, and received impressive enhancements to his strength, agility, and endurance.
62----
63* AbusiveParents: He doesn't really go into detail about his family situation, but it's [[ImpliedTrope implied]] to be so bad that it would probably be best if we and Penny didn't hear about it. Now that he has superpowers, his parents can't really do much to him, but he still can't bear being around them to the point that he spends as little time at home as possible and is seriously considering the possibility of becoming emancipated.
64* TheAce: The Serum made him strong and fast, and he ''owned'' those enhancements. He can even take on a master swordsman like Witch Hunter without too much difficulty. He's apparently self-taught, too, and manages to impress [[OldMaster Master Scorpion]] enough to get an offer for training.
65* AdventurerArchaeologist: In the third book, Ray encounters one, and winds up as her apprentice by the end of the fourth book.
66* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Subverted. Penny assumes he has a thing for Claire, but he actually likes her. They [[spoiler: finally kiss towards the end of the book.]]
67* BadassInANiceSuit: After he gets his powers, he decides to treat himself to some new clothes, dressing in sleek blacks in both super and civilian identities.
68* ChivalrousPervert: He always had a perverted side, but it wasn't until he got the serum and a massive confidence boost that he started being vocal about it--but he still didn't actually do anything. Most evident in ''Moon'', when Penny makes him promise to keep a lid on everything, since they'll be stuck in a space the size of a large closet for at least a week. [[CovertPervert She's a little disappointed he agrees]].
69* CoatHatMask: all in black, that is his switch from civilian to supervillain outfit. At least the mask covers most of his face rather than the usual tiny eyeshadow.
70* CoDragons: Along with Claire, he's a sidekick/henchman to the VillainProtagonist, Penny.
71* CombatPragmatist: He's not shy about ripping up fence poles and smacking monsters with them when his friends are in danger. After the fight with Witch Hunter (which he won), he notes that challenging a master swordsman to a sword duel was a bad idea, and next time he'll just throw a car at him.
72* FighterMageThief: In The Inscrutable Machine, he is the warrior to Penny's Mage and Claire's Thief, being a LightningBruiser (speed, strength, stamina, and possibly enhanced awareness) and the most ready-to-fight of the three.
73* GeniusBruiser: He aces every school test in his life and even Penny admired his intelligence before she got hers super-charged.
74* HyperAwareness: Whenever there's an attack aimed at one of his teammates you can generally bet that he's already moving to block or get them out of the way.
75* ImprovisedWeapon: When pressed, he's adept at using the environment as an armory, such as ripping up an iron post to hit a monster, or ripping a door out of its frame to bludgeon someone who's highly resistant to anything but blunt force.
76* IShouldHaveBeenBetter: After the near-disastrous encounter with the thugs sent by the Council of Seven and a Half in Chinatown, he's clearly furious at himself for not being able to fight them off. An older and wiser villain talks him down.
77* LightningBruiser: After getting super-serumed he is able to lift cars as well as able to keep up with vehicles while on foot.
78* MoralityChain: He knows that he would slide into worse and worse villainy on his own, so he assigns Penny to keep him in check.
79* PutOnABus: In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImAGiantMonster'', he has left school without explanation, and Penny says he may never come back.
80* StepfordSmiler: There is something ''deeply'' wrong with his home life, but he keeps a smile on at all times.
81* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Penny had to come up with an alias for him on the cuff, so she ended up turning '''Ra'''y '''Vile'''s into '''Revile'''d.
82* ToxicFriendInfluence: Downplayed. He helps push Penny to supervillainy, outright declaring himself "a devil on [her] shoulder", but is still an honest friend (in turn treating Penny as his shoulder angel).
83
84[[/folder]]
85
86[[folder:E-Claire]]
87!!Claire Lutra/E-Claire
88
89->''"You're not Brian Akk, and you don't have to be. You're Penelope Akk."''\
90
91Penny's female friend, daughter of the supervillain/hero the Minx. She was well set to inherit her mother's powers, but unintentionally accelerated the process when she begged Penny for a serum to enhance her physical abilities.
92----
93* ClassyCatBurglar: Claire wants to follow in the footsteps of her famous mother, who was this.
94* CoDragons: Along with Ray, she's a sidekick/henchwoman to VillainProtagonist Penny.
95* CutenessProximity: Her power lets her fog the minds of almost everyone around her with cuteness to make them less willing to fight. [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway It's helpful, but not as much as you'd think]].
96* FanGirl: She loves supers, and follows most of their activities online. This is pretty useful, since she can identify most of the people they fight on sight.
97* FighterMageThief: She's the Thief to Penny's Mage and Ray's Fighter, being trained in burglary and stealth while also able to handle talking with the criminal underworld more readily than the rest of the team.
98* GenerationXerox: Penny says she couldn't look more like her mother if she was a clone.
99* TheGlomp: She has a tendency to give hugs when excited or happy. Apparently, it's genetic.
100* HeroicBastard: Her mom has no idea who her father is. Neither of them care.
101* TheMinionMaster: Penny makes her zombie ragdolls that can consume fabric and cloth to make more of themselves. They obey Claire, and only function within the radius of her power, so there's little danger of a TurnedAgainstTheirMasters situation.
102* PowerIncontinence: It's very difficult for her to keep a lid on her power. Apparently, Lucyfar stopped over the night she got her powers, and spent ten minutes just watching her sleep before Claire's mom took pity on her and dragged her away.
103* SuperCuteSuperPowers: Her "Super Cuteness" powers primary function is to fog people's minds with cuteness. She's not altogether happy about this, since she really wanted her mother's power (fogging men's minds with lust), but it's actually surprisingly powerful.
104* VoluntaryShapeshifting: She has some ability to alter her facial features, though the full extent is unknown. Enough that she doesn't have to worry about being recognized, though.
105-->My stupid mouth acted on automatic. "She almost looks like Claire."\
106Dad just chuckled. "She does, doesn't she? I think it was a half-hearted attempt to frame Claire. The name is deliberate, and the costume is a reference to her power. I say 'half-hearted', because if E-Claire were really trying she would hide her face. The first words out of your mother's mouth were 'Her cheekbones are wrong', and her body language was wrong in the first video. She can't even claim to be Claire in makeup."\
107Claire Lutra, you little vixen. You knew all along your secret identity was completely safe. Your Mom must have known as well. And if E-Claire couldn't possibly be Claire, then her teammates couldn't be me and Ray. You devious shape-changing ''vixen'', Claire. You'd covered us all.
108
109[[/folder]]
110
111!!Parents
112
113[[folder:Brainy Akk]]
114!!Brian Akk/Brainy Akk
115
116->''"Pumpkin, I've done the analyses. She's inherited a tone of voice and sensitivity to electrical currents that allow her to initiate some very complex energy chain reactions with precisely formulated sound wave patterns."''\
117
118Penny's father, and one of the most well-known super geniuses in the world. Also one of the few capable of understanding his own inventions.
119----
120* MadScientist: Subverted. While mundane scientists can't understand anything except his most basic work, ''he'' can, which puts him a step above most mad scientists. With effort, he can even write blueprints that normal science and engineering can replicate.
121* MagicVersusScience: He refuses to believe in magic, and repeatedly finds ways to explain it semi-coherently using science. Apparently, this is not an uncommon mindset amongst scientists.
122* NoodleIncident: At the end of ''Henchmen'', some of the other super parents mention a "rampaging groomer" of his.
123-->'''Super Mom:''' At least it left its victims clean and fresh.\
124'''Brian:''' ''[muttering]'' I can't be responsible for user error.
125* PunnyName: His NomDeGuerre, Brainy Akk. Brainiac.
126* SwearJar: There are two jars in his house. One that he puts a dollar into every time he calls his daughter "Pumpkin," and another he puts five in every time he calls her "Princess." They do little to discourage him. They do, however, allow Penny to afford entertainment.
127
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:The Audit]]
131!!Beatrice Benevolent Akk/The Audit
132
133->''"The person who cares enough to work for what they want, who both thinks and acts and doesn't hesitate? She's the one who wins."''\
134
135Penny's mother, a retired superheroine who claims to have no powers at all.
136----
137* AwesomenessByAnalysis: She can dodge bullets by being where they're not, and when she sees a car chase calls the police to tell them where to set up the road block.
138* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: She insists she has no powers, and that what she does is the same as Sherlock Holmes or a chess grandmaster. Most mundanes don't believe it, but it seems supers largely agree with her.
139* CombatPragmatist: Penny makes constant references to criminals surrendering rather than fighting her. Bull mentions that she fought him by stuffing sand in his eyes, nose, and ears, tricking him into punching a telephone pole and electrocuting himself, and then hit him with a bus.
140* TheDreaded: In ''Supervillain'', Penny's thoughts mention that when supervillains heard The Audit was coming, they'd often give up on the spot.
141* LivingLieDetector: Only to be expected. Penny gets around it with half-truths and pretending to hide less embarrassing things.
142* LogicalWeakness: Her AwesomenessByAnalysis abilities fail to detect that her daughter is Bad Penny largely because Penny's power is so crazily strong as to defy all logic or probability. The several false explanations (robot, tech thief, etc) she comes up with are all more likely than the truth, but the truth happens, for once, to be just about the least likely explanation.
143* MamaBear: Although she's TheDreaded herself, if her daughter is in danger, she will not hesitate to take poor odds and fight another Dreaded.
144* ParentalObliviousness: BadassNormal genius that puts actual superhuman geniuses to shame, but doesn't realize her daughter is a supervillain. While she does connect the Inscrutable Machine to Penny and her friends, she [[EntertaininglyWrong writes off the similarities]] as the Inscrutable Machine intentionally styling themselves as {{Evil Counterpart}}s. [[/folder]]
145
146[[folder:The Minx]]
147!!Misty Lutra/The Minx
148
149->''"This is the proudest moment of your life so far, Penny. Throw caution to the wind and enjoy it."''\
150
151Claire's mother, a former supervillain who switched sides before she retired. She has very powerful lust powers and a cheerful demeanor that can be tiring at times.
152----
153* BavarianFireDrill: Claire mentions that a lot of her thefts relied on the fact that rich guys tend to assume that a stunning blonde in a bikini has a good reason to hang around.
154* CharmPerson: Her power inspires lust and devotion in men.
155* ClassyCatBurglar: She was a thief, and a very good one. It's not clear if agility was part of her powerset, but Penny does note that she's never seen her drop anything.
156* ConsummateLiar: She's one of the few people who can tell a bald-faced lie to the Audit and get away with it.
157-->'''Penny:''' Always sounding like you were lying was almost as good a poker face as always sounding sincere.
158* ReallyGetsAround: Or she used to, anyway. Considering she's a beautiful woman with a seduction ability and a complete lack of shame, this should only be expected. Neither she nor Claire seem to care that they have no idea who Claire's father is.
159* SecretKeeper: She knows that the kids have already come into their powers, and is more than happy to keep it a secret.
160* StacysMom: Not for Penny, but for other characters like Ray. She knows it, too: the phone she gave [[spoiler: Robot]] Penny had [[Music/FountainsOfWayne the trope namer]] as the ringtone for her number.
161* TrulySingleParent: She and Claire look [[GenerationXerox so much alike]] that Penny is not willing to rule out the possibility.
162
163[[/folder]]
164
165!!Heroes
166
167[[folder:Mech]]
168!!Mech
169
170->''"I hear there's a new mad scientist in LA. Welcome to the brotherhood, sister."''\
171
172An armored superhero who works very closely with Penny's father, he personally congratulates Penny on her powers flashing for the first time.
173----
174* AmbiguouslyBrown: He normally wears a helmet and some sort of flight mask underneath, but Penny notes his dark skin tone when he takes them off. She guesses he's Indian, but isn't able to ask.
175* {{Expy}}: A pretty clear ComicBook/IronMan one.
176* HermeticMagic: Though he's a pretty pure ScienceHero, he's not above using his lasers to carve a binding circle when he's fighting an EldritchAbomination.
177* TheSparkOfGenius: The extent of his abilities is unclear, but he mentions that his armor is his first and greatest invention, which he's never been able to truly replicate.
178
179[[/folder]]
180
181[[folder:Miss A]]
182!!Marcia Bradley/Miss A/Ouroboros
183
184->''"I knew there were supervillains' kids mixed in at this school. All I had to do was make the bait too good to resist."''\
185
186The snotty and condescending head cheerleader, who is also Miss A, sidekick of the Original. She uses a sparkly cheerleader theme in her costume.\
187
188She changes ''significantly'' in the third book, going back to her natural hair color and obtaining actual superpowers.
189----
190* AbusiveParents: We don't get a look at her home life, so it's unclear if her father is actively abusive or just a demanding stage dad, but either way she eventually snaps and throws him through a wall. The only reason he survived was because there was an emergency room on the other side. In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIWorkForASupervillain'', Marcia offhandedly comments that another superhero threatened to "tell CPS how my dad treated me," to make her father drop a lawsuit against Mourning Dove.
191* AlphaBitch: Both in and out of costume. At school, she's the leader of the cheer squad, and spends her time bitching at everyone else. In costume, she's snide and overconfident, and seems to think that being a hero means she's justified in doing anything to take down villains.
192* AmbiguouslyRelated: Marcia and her father, The Original, share a surname with Palooka Joe, another wealthy superhero from ''Literature/IDidNotGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence,'' but no exact relationship is confirmed. The ambiguity is downplayed but not completely cleared up in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsYouBelieveHer'', where she refers to her grandfather being a superhero and to Jake Bradley aka Palooka Joe.
193* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In the third book, she decides she wants to be a supervillain because they get to punch cars whenever they want, make them explode and then walk through the flames and glare at people.
194-->'''Penny:''' Criminy. Marcia actually had ''more'' issues.
195* BadassNormal: Implied. The Original is explicitly a normal, and as his sidekick it seems he's training her in dangerous martial arts.
196* BattleCouple: In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIWorkForASupervillain'', Marcia develops a romantic interest in Aikamieli, a teenaged wizard who becomes part of her new group of heroes. For his part, Aikamieli would rather skip the "battle" part, though.
197* TheBerserker: Penny notes deliberately impaling herself to deprive her opponent of his weapon as a quintessentially Marcia move. This is partially her personality and partially about [[spoiler: balancing her unstable powers]], as in some fights when placed in a position where she can't go on the offensive she outright loses consciousness.
198* BloodKnight: Hints of it in the first two books, but it comes out in full force when she [[spoiler:gains healing powers]] in the third. She fights ''Mourning Dove'' simply because she thought it would be fun to fight a vampire.
199* CombatSadomasochist: She likes getting hurt just a tad too much.
200* ElementalPunch: [[spoiler: Gains a CastingAShadow version of these from the Pure Fist scrolls]].
201* EmpoweredBadassNormal: In the third book she manages to [[spoiler: obtain super powers by stealing two magical martial arts scrolls and absorbs the powers of both]]. Which everyone in the field knows is insane, impossible, and fatal. Marcia just keeps not being dead, though.
202* TheFriendNobodyLikes:
203** What little time she spends interacting with other heroes makes it clear that they don't like her any better than the villains do.
204** In the third book, after going crazy, she loses all her popular friends but forces herself into the new super club. People tolerate her because she really is nicer than she used to be, but she's also ''really creepy''.
205* GirlPosse: Has at least two sidekicks who follow her around. After she gets powers [[TrueCompanions Sue]] sticks by her, despite being a little creeped out by the changes in her, while the other girl and the rest of their popular friends drop her like a hot potato (something which makes Sue more determined to be there for Marcia).
206* {{Immortality}}: There's lots of immortality symbolism surrounding her new powers, from the light and the dark powers, her mentioning two snakes eating each other in her heart, and her new chosen name of "Ouroboros," but we don't actually know the extent of her abilities.
207* NoSell: Mourning Dove's life-draining ultimate attack [[spoiler: simply adds a third serpent to the two already eating each other inside her heart]].
208* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: She borrows a piece of alien technology from someone (probably the Original) both as bait for supervillain kids and to show up everyone else in the science fair.
209* SuperStrength: [[spoiler: One of the things she gained from the Pure Fist scrolls.]]
210* TrophyChild: She is made into a sidekick for her father's "hero" identity in ''Supervillain'', and is raised for the purpose of appearing perfect for her family. In later books, she says she was told that the best she can do is "good enough" and refers to how she was raised as trying to turn her into a (philosophical) zombie.
211* TurnTheOtherCheek: Marcia helps Witch Hunter escape from Spider when she's about to brutally execute him, even though the reason she's trying to kill him is that he just attacked Marcia inside of the TruceZone.
212* YinYangBomb: In the third book, she [[spoiler:steals two extremely powerful magical martial arts scrolls, one white and one black. Either one would kill her if she touched it, but she somehow manages to use both of them. It seems like she lets the powers fight each other instead of killing her and just siphons off the excess energy for her powers and healing, but how this works is not examined in depth]].
213
214[[/folder]]
215
216[[folder:Ifrit]]
217!!Ifrit
218
219->''"If we don't win, it doesn't matter who we decide is right."''\
220
221A middle-school boy with fire powers. He gets dragged into the fight with Sharky by Miss A in order to capture the Inscrutable Machine, but his heart clearly isn't in it.
222----
223* ButtMonkey: Appearing in ''''Supervillain'', ''Nemesis'', and ''Believe'', he can never win a fight:
224** In ''Supervillain'', he first loses a 2v2 with [[AlphaBitch Miss A]] against [[MadScientist Bad Penny]] and [[LightningBruiser Reviled]]. Then he loses again in a single-shot battle with Bad Penny.
225** In ''Nemesis'', he helps train Penelope (who he doesn't know is also Bad Penny) in dodging, and is summarily defeated when she reaches him from across the training grounds and traps him with one of her clockwork restraining devices.
226** In ''Believe'', [[BloodKnight Ouroboros]] (formerly Miss A) tricks him into fighting Bad Penny [[spoiler:who's now a robot]], who slams his head into the ground and tells him to go back to being a sidekick.
227* ByTheBookCop: Despite how much he obviously dislikes Miss A, he decides to capture the Inscrutable Machine and let the authorities figure things out later.
228* KidSidekick: He's implied to be one to Marvelous. They show up at the warehouse together, and she chides him for his mistakes in a very master/apprentice sort of way. Miss A thinks he's Marvelous' little brother, but he says she's wrong.
229* PlayingWithFire: In addition to basic fireballs, he can make a fire shield and a fire cage to trap people.
230
231[[/folder]]
232
233[[folder:Gabriel]]
234!!Gabriel
235
236->''"I don't like grudge matches, and I won't let myself be dragged into one."''\
237
238A six-winged angelic hero who is initially called in by Miss A to fight the Inscrutable Machine. Once he realizes it's just a grudge match, he refuses to fight, and carries his defeated allies out.\
239
240He has a blog which is quite popular, but doesn't talk about his past. Lucyfar insists he is the Archangel Gabriel, her divine brother, which he denies. They clearly have some connection, though; he's been able to talk her down from crimes a few times, and they may or may not be dating.
241----
242* ArchangelGabriel: He's an angelic hero with six wings and named "Gabriel." He's notably tight-lipped on his past and origins, but the villain Lucyfar (who claims to be the [[{{Satan}} Archangel Lucifer]]) insists that he is the Archangel Gabriel himself, and her divine brother. [[DatingCatwoman She also insists that they're dating]] (''that'' part [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend Gabriel denies]]).
243* BrotherSisterIncest: If Lucyfar is telling the truth about their divine origins and if they're actually dating, it would mean that he is dating his sister.
244* DatingCatwoman: Again, according to Lucyfar. At the very least, he's not antagonistic with her.
245-->Rushing over to open it, Lucyfar squealed, "No time to talk about it. My date is here!" Seriously, she squealed. Who were the thirteen-year-olds here?\
246We filed out onto the rooftop after her as a mass of white wings fluttered down out of the sky. They tucked behind Gabriel's back as he landed, only slightly out of the way.\
247"So, you two are dating?" Claire asked pointedly, giving them both a hopefully questioning grin.\
248Her powers didn’t do her much good this time. "Yes!" Lucyfar declared immediately, throwing herself onto Gabriel and wrapping her arms around him.\
249"No," he contradicted, standing stiff and disapproving.\
250"Yes!" Lucyfar repeated, nodding like a bobble-head.\
251"No," Gabriel insisted, just like last time.
252* MysteriousPast: In his blog, he talks about what it's like to be a superhero, but never so much as hints at his origin or how he knows Lucyfar. She claims he's the Archangel Gabriel, her divine brother, but he says she's just making it up.
253* NighInvulnerable: His wings, apparently. He uses them as a shield when punched by a giant robot, and they're completely unharmed. He is knocked back, though.
254* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He's still on the young side, but older than the main characters, and quickly realizes that fighting them would be counterproductive for everyone. After their first encounter, he claims next time they'll meet as enemies, but when they run into him again he leaves them alone (it helped that he may or may not have been there on a date with Lucyfar).
255* WingedHumanoid: Six, like a seraphim. It's unknown whether or not he can stow them like Lucyfar does.
256
257[[/folder]]
258
259[[folder:Marvelous]]
260!!Marvelous
261
262->''"At your age I could cast '''one''' spell even close to reliably, and it drove me crazy that it took four more years of study to have enough powers to join the community."''\
263
264A young sorceress friend of the Akk family, Marvelous is a genial woman with a powerful repertoire of spells. At the beginning of the novel, she was cursed by an unknown source and needed dragon's blood to lift it.
265----
266* {{Curse}}: Before the book started, she lost her powers somehow and used dragon's blood to restore them. Later she was seeking more dragon blood to keep her powers. It's unclear whether this indicates a permanent dependency, or just a higher dose.
267* {{Flight}}: She can levitate things, including herself.
268* ForcedSleep: She has a spell to put people to sleep, and it's implied she has others of a similar effect.
269* {{Stripperiffic}}: Her costume doesn't leave much to the imagination, and it used to be even skimpier. Marvelous notes that most supervillains were actually quite gentlemanly about it, giving her nothing worse than some good-natured teasing that helped ease the tension in the worst fights. She changed costumes because civilian bystanders were pigs.
270* StuffBlowingUp: The aptly named "Boom" spell causes explosions wherever she points.
271* WordsCanBreakMyBones: She casts her spells with incantations.
272
273[[/folder]]
274
275[[folder:Generic Girl]]
276!!Claudia Catherine Cuddihy/Generic Girl
277
278->''"That's it?"''\
279
280A quiet girl in Penny's class who turns out to be an extremely powerful hero. No one's ever heard of her because she doesn't grandstand. She just stops the crime and leaves. She has flight, invulnerability, super strength, and super speed.
281----
282* BrickJoke: In ''Henchmen'', she mentions that she and her dad are planning to go out on a boat where she'll dive into the water and pull up sharks so that they can look at them. In ''Work'', she mentions a pet shark, so apparently that went well.
283* DeathGlare: She has one that's good enough that Penny occasionally worries she secretly has EyeBeams she's been holding in reserve.
284* DeusExitMachina: She's the strongest kid super, and quite possibly the strongest super in the city (until her father showed up) so a lot of effort is put into keeping her out of the way. Sometimes she's busy stopping other crimes, while sometimes the Inscrutable Machine is just stealthy enough to avoid her notice. In the climax of ''Henchmen'', she actually offers to solve the problem in five seconds, but Penny insists it's more important she spend time with her father.
285* FlyingBrick: Strong enough to punch through the Machine's armor plating, fast enough to reach the site of any crime in minutes, and tough enough to handle Ray and anything else people can throw at her. She's only shown weakness against magic and possession, as she doesn't seem to have psychic defenses.
286* HalfHumanHybrid: It's hard to say where she sits on the humanity scale. Her mother is an immortal who claims not to be human, while her father is so physically altered by his power that he's arguably not human any more. She certainly ''looks'' perfectly human, though.
287* MuggingTheMonster: An odd variation in that despite being one of the most powerful and ruthless superhumans in L.A., she puts up with being bullied at school without so much as a peep.
288* NotAGame: Most of the super community, heroes and villains alike, treat the whole thing as a game, with lots of grandstanding and speeches and posing for the cameras. Not her. She just stops crime.
289-->'''Claudia:''' You're mining a trash heap. Not for uranium, just for junk. Stop pretending to be a supervillain, Penelope. This isn’t a game.\
290'''Penny:''' Then why are you playing, Claudia?
291* PaperThinDisguise: Downplayed. It isn't ''too'' bad, but people who know her (like Penny) are able to see through it fairly quickly.
292
293[[/folder]]
294
295[[folder:The Librarian]]
296!!The Librarian
297
298->''"She only knows the forbidden words. I know all the words."''\
299
300The hero who attends the Los Angeles Main Branch Public Library. She appears as an old, matronly woman, and has the power to bring the stories in books to life.
301----
302* TheDreaded: Even a team of hardened supervillains are hesitant about attacking her.
303* HomeFieldAdvantage: One villain warns that facing her inside the library is a ''really'' bad idea.
304* KillItWithFire: She Who Wots says her weakness is fire, but the Librarian manages to shrug off the attack pretty easily.
305* RealityWarper: The Inscrutable Machine notes that the fan sites seriously underestimated her. She is able to give life to every single book in the library at once, resulting in kids and talking animals defending the Children's Section, a giant helping others travel over the walls, and a T-Rex stalking the main hall. It appears she doesn't have the ability to choose what is animated, though; the History section comes to life despite the questionable utility of that, and the Horror section actively endangers innocent bystanders.
306* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: She Who Wots implies she is the librarian who was in charge of the Library of Alexandria, and she [[MyGreatestFailure still regrets not being able to save it]].
307* ThrowTheBookAtThem: Lucyfar is immune to magic, so she's not afraid of the Librarian. She still doesn't want to get whacked in the head with a fifty-pound book, though.
308* WordsCanBreakMyBones: How it works is unclear, but she is somehow able to use words to attack opponents. As in they fly off the pages of a book and hit them.
309
310[[/folder]]
311
312[[folder:Evolution]]
313!!Evolution
314
315->'''Penny:''' Evolution had been the best, and everyone had thought he was invulnerable until the day they found out he wasn't.
316
317A hero who died before the start of the series. Little is known about him, other than he could gain powers from people he fought.
318----
319* AdaptiveAbility: He had some ability to absorb powers from people he fought. Apparently all the villains were angry when Bull fought him, since he was suddenly too strong for anyone to deal with.
320* BigGood: He gets namedropped in a very "Superman is dead" sort of way.
321* KilledOffForReal: One of the most notable examples in the setting.
322* MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: He spent his first week as a tree trying to get a handle on his powers, and the vast amounts of pollen he released during that time are theorized to be the cause of the rise in superhumans.
323* PosthumousCharacter: Obviously.
324* UnseenNoMore: After years of only being mentioned, Evolution appears in the climax of the prequel short story "Summer of Lob."
325* VoluntaryShapeShifting: He could turn into a tree, at least.
326
327[[/folder]]
328
329[[folder:Mourning Dove]]
330!!Bluejay/Mourning Dove
331
332->''"It will turn against you one day. I can kill it for you now, while it's still safe."''\
333
334A reanimated zombie construct who is theoretically a hero, known mostly for the fact that she doesn't try very hard to bring people in alive.
335----
336* BreakTheCutie: She was a lot more innocent and well-intentioned as Bluejay and did not take her transformation well.
337* CreepyGood: She's a zombie vampire thing who drains life from her victims. She's also unquestionably on the side of good, and is the only hero to notice that the Inscrutable Machine are actually pretty heroic if you ignore the maniacal laughter. Even her offer to kill Penny's power comes off as an awkward attempt to be nice.
338* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: Villains who cross the line tend to "accidentally" get killed by her.
339* TheDreaded: In ''Supervillain'', Penny regards her as a reason not to get anywhere near the darker sides of either the supervillain or the superhero communities. When she shows up in ''Moon'', Penny doesn't bother with any quips, jokes, or attacks. [[DontAskJustRun She just runs for her life]].
340* HiddenDepths: Noticing that the Inscrutable Machine aren't really villainous when heroes considered smarter and more heroic than her didn't.
341* NoSell:
342** Archimedes' mind control doesn't work very well on her, and she gets better at resisting it every time Penny tries.
343** Claire's power does work on her, but she just grits her teeth and powers through it.
344* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Penny describes her as a vampire several times in ''Moon''. We do see her drain the life out of a flawed supervillain clone, and Ray mentions her needing to feed.
345* OurZombiesAreDifferent: She seems to be a Frankenstein, though the process gave her dangerous powers in addition to life.
346* SanitySlippage: It is heavily implied she would undergo this if she were to stop draining people of their life, similar to Psychopomp.
347* TeleportersAndTransporters: She has some form of teleportation ability, seen when she follows Penny's teleport, but we don't get too much detail.
348* ThatManIsDead: In ''I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence'', Irene tries to refer to her as Bluejay a few times after she is zombified. She doesn't like it. As far as she's concerned, she is no longer Bluejay after what the Bad Doctor did to her.
349* TragicMonster: She knows she's a monster. Filled with hunger that can never be satisfied, and she remembers when she could be something else.
350* UsedToBeASweetKid: She was once a teenage girl named Bluejay with healing powers that even impressed immortals like Goodnight and Psychopomp. Then the Bad Doctor got a hold of her, killed her, and revived her as a Frankensteinian monster. Her powers inverted, draining life instead of giving it.
351
352[[/folder]]
353
354[[folder:The Kludge]]
355!!Remington Fawkes/Remmy/The Kludge
356
357->''"IF IT TAKES A HERO TO STOP A VILLAIN, FINE. I WILL BE THAT HERO! I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS TOMORROW, BUT TODAY NO ONE DIES. NO ONE!"''\
358
359An eleven year-old girl from the Jovian moons, she's a mad scientist traveling with her brother and his girlfriend.
360----
361
362* GreenEyedMonster: She's one of the best mad scientists in the Jovian moons, and doesn't appreciate the fact that Penny's better. The fact that her brother and Juno spend most of their time singing Penny's praises doesn't help.
363* MadnessPlace: She doesn't seem to have one, which is why she freaks out when Penny goes all cackling mad during an inventing fit.
364* MadScientist: Rather than just building things from scratch, her power lets her kludge together useful tools from other mad science inventions. Since she lives in a place where mad science is always within arm's reach, this makes her ability extraordinarily useful.
365* MightMakesRight: By the end of ''Moon'', she's given up arguing with people.
366-->The roof above me muffled everyone’s voice but Remmy's again. "I'M NOT REMINGTON TO YOU ANYMORE. HEROES HAVE TITLES. THE KLUDGE WILL STOP BAD PENNY'S PLANS, AND THE FIRST STEP IS NOT LETTING YOU KILL EACH OTHER."\
367Thompson said something very brief.\
368"BECAUSE I'LL HIT YOU."
369* WrongGenreSavvy: Like so many of the heroes from Earth, she comes to think the Inscrutable Machine are a dangerous force and chases them [[ItsPersonal all the way back to Earth]] to fight them, although she is dissuaded of this notion faster than most of the Earth heroes, and reconciles with them in short order.
370
371[[/folder]]
372
373[[folder:Goodnight]]
374!!Irene/Goodnight
375
376->''"You came back just when Cat needs you most. These last ten years will become a funny story we tell our grandchildren, I promise."''\
377
378Bull's wife, an immortal who mostly does charity work now.
379----
380
381* TenMinuteRetirement: In ''Spider'', she and Psychopomp commiserate over the fact that immortals like them retire every once in a while, but it never sticks.
382* AscendedExtra: In ''Spider'', after having only had minor appearances before that.
383* BizarreAlienPsychology: Minor example. She completely lacks any phobia of bugs, so she is confused when humans react so violently to seeing Spider.
384* CatchPhrase: "Goodnight!" whenever she drops something heavy on someone's head.
385* DatingCatwoman: Bull was her Catwoman, since she was a hero when he was at the top of his game as a villain.
386* EthicalSlut: She's pretty shameless about enjoying sex. In ''Henchmen'' she greets Bull with a '''very''' passionate kiss, and in ''Spider'' she says that hero work is the most fun she has vertical.
387* GadgeteerGenius: When using the technology of her people, which sits at an unclear point between science and magic. She doesn't have any powers herself besides minor shapeshifting and immortality, but she was good at re-purposing the technology her family left her into something useful for crime fighting.
388* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: She's four feet tall, while Bull is at least eight. Do the math--or don't. Penny certainly didn't.
389* IconicSequelCharacter: Goodnight cameos in the third book before narrating the next novel, the DarkerAndEdgier, GrowingTheBeard prequel ''Literature/IDidNotGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence''.
390* {{Immortality}}: Exactly what type is unclear, but she implies she's not human, and casually mentions "old family knicknacks" in ancient Yucatan ruins.
391* MindOverMatter: Before Penny got it, the Push Rod was hers. She mostly used it to drop heavy things on people, but it could move anything non-living.
392* RaisedByRobots: In ''Spider'', she reveals that she was raised by computers in some "high-tech ziggurats" in the jungle.
393* RetiredBadass: She was Bull's rival while they were both active, but mostly just does volunteer and charity work now.
394* SignatureMove: She got her name from her tendency to use her [[MindOverMatter Push Rod]] to drop heavy things on people, knocking them out.
395* VagueAge: She's immortal or close to it, but her parents thought calendars were a "dumb mortal obsession," so she often has difficulty keeping track of human years. She estimates she was born somewhere around 1750, but there's no real way to be sure.
396
397[[/folder]]
398
399[[folder:Psychopomp]]
400!!Psychopomp
401
402->''"The twentieth century holds few employment prospects for an eternal ten year old enslaved to feed Death's scythe."''\
403
404A girl eternally trapped at ten years old and cursed to feed Death's scythe. A friend of Goodnight's.
405----
406* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Her scythe can cut through anything alive. Against dead things, its power is blunted, so while it remains sharp it's nowhere near as dangerous.
407* TheAgeless: Her bond with the scythe keeps her at ten years old. She was three-hundred and twenty-four years in 1980. She's the oldest confirmed superhuman besides some jackass who claims to be from ancient Babylon.
408* BigEater: Whether it's because of her age or the bond, she eats a ''lot''.
409* CurbStompBattle: Every single fight she is in. You don't survive for over three hundred years without getting ''very'' good at fighting.
410-->'''Goodnight:''' I've never seen her fight. None of them have lasted long enough to deserve the name.
411* CutLexLuthorACheck: Goodnight points out that she could make a lot of money just talking to historians about her experiences. Psychopomp admits she never thought of it.
412* GirlWithPsychoWeapon: She wields Death's own scythe. She insists that she's enslaved to it, and implies something bad would happen if she stopped killing with it.
413* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: She eventually admits that she's not sure whether the scythe is actually Death's or just some random artifact.
414* NoSell: She is the first person Mourning Dove attempts to drain, but it has no effect.
415* OneManArmy: Penny plays a game called ''Little Reaper Girl'' based on Psychopomp's early life, and involves killing hundreds of people. Penny doesn't think much of it until she looks up the historical event and discovers that it actually happened. We don't get too much detail, but apparently Psychopomp was trapped in some sort of dome with a bunch of people who wanted to kill her, [[AssassinOutClassin and she killed them all first]].
416* SanitySlippage: Should she stop killing people with Death's scythe for an extended period of time, she will eventually be overcome by the urge to do so and go after the nearest living soul. [[spoiler:This becomes an issue at the end of ''Spider'', when she comes ''extremely'' close to losing control and killing Goodnight.]]
417* ShroudedInMyth: Even in the super community, she is considered a legend. Several people are shocked to discover that she actually exists.
418* WeakButSkilled: The scythe doesn't actually give her very many abilities. Sure, it's perfectly lethal against anyone alive, but it doesn't give her direct combat abilities. Thanks to over three hundred years of experience, she is still able to go toe to toe with superhumans (including ones immune to the scythe's abilities) without trouble.
419* WoundThatWillNotHeal: Inverted. Her scythe can give wounds that will heal normally, but the victim cannot die until they finish healing. They actually heal ''better'' than normal wounds; even amputations heal quickly, since there is no nerve death and they reconnect easily. Some people have attempted to use this to achieve immortality, but they either underestimated how quickly the wound heals or eventually allowed themselves to die.
420
421[[/folder]]
422
423[[folder:Mish-Mosh]]
424!!Robin/Mish-Mosh/Starshine
425
426->''"I'm... new. To everything."''\
427
428A cyborg fox creature who Goodnight saves from some thugs.
429----
430* BabiesEverAfter: The HappilyEverAfter is only [[ImpliedTrope Implied]], but she first appears as a young adult in ''Literature/IDidNOTGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence''. Then in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImAGiantMonster'', she shows up as the mother of Entropy and Mirabelle.
431* CannibalismSuperpower: She doesn't need to eat, but she gains an insatiable hunger when confronted with cyborg components (including the fleshy bits). She then incorporates the components into her own body.
432* HomeNudist: As of ''Monster'', she spends about half her time naked at home. Mirabelle notes that her unique physiology (appears to be a hole in the shape of a person and filled with stars) actually makes this very modest.
433* TheNeedless: She doesn't appear to need food.
434* SuperStrength: She's strong enough to throw a fully loaded dumpster twenty feet in the air. Goodnight notes that this is the limit of her strength, but still impressive.
435
436[[/folder]]
437
438[[folder:Judgment]]
439!!Judgment
440->'''Neon Rider:''' That jive sucker doesn't care who's evil. He just puts a bullet into anybody the fuzz can't catch. He's worse than anybody he puts down, you know.
441A frequently mentioned vigilante with a bad reputation.
442----
443* ColdSniper: Both ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImAGiantMonster'' and the short story "Summer of Lob" say he is notorious for shooting people from a distance with a rifle.
444* TheGhost: Judgment is mentioned multiple times in several books but never physically appears.
445* HatedByAll: Judgment is feared and hated throughout both the superhero and supervillain communities. When Spider first proposes siccing Mourning Dove on bad apples in the hero and villain communities, Judgment is quickly singled out for the dubious honor of being Mourning Dove's first official victim (although apparently she fails, as he's still alive decades later).
446* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Judgment is a vigilante who has put down some genuinely nasty and dangerous villains (such as Deadly Flame, who killed over a hundred people in a single day), but he also kills people who ''aren't'' nasty and dangerous villains.
447* InterspeciesFriendship: Judgment's only friend and ally, the even more reviled Winnow, is described in [[NothingIsScarier vaguely]] nonhuman terms.
448* SuperheroPackingHeat: Judgment is described as being on the "murderous psychopaths super-powered list" but generally uses a rifle in combat.
449[[/folder]]
450
451[[folder:The Way]]
452!!Kay Slade/The Way
453->''"I'm sorry for not trusting you. I trust you as a person, Magenta. I'm just worried. Supervillains and superheroes get hurt. It's not just part of the job, it's the point."''
454The older brother of Magenta Slade.
455----
456* AloofBigBrother: Kay keeps his distance due to fear of misusing his power.
457* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Kay's power lets him find the easiest answer to any question. Unfortunately, "easiest" is not the same as "best." He mentions that sometimes the easiest way to jam a doomsday device is to shove his own arm into the gears, and later Cleric points out that the easiest way to free someone from mind control is to kill them, or rip out the mind control implants (which will likely kill them).
458* BornLucky: His power, to know the easiest way to achieve his goals.
459* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler: Cleric ends up taking away his powers, although The Way admits that they were always a burden to him despite all of the good that came with them.]]
460* CoolBigBro: He cares about Magenta's safety but is also willing to be her SecretKeeper and give Cleric a chance.
461* IdealHero: He is a brave and kind-hearted superhero whose main focus is protecting the innocent.
462* WithGreatPower: Kay's power could get him literally anything he wanted. He uses it ''only'' for hero work, and absolutely refuses to use it for anything selfish. There was apparently an incident in his past that scared him out of using it selfishly, but even Magenta doesn't know the details.
463[[/folder]]
464
465[[folder:Neon Rider]]
466!!Neon Rider
467--> '''Neon Rider''': Besides, fighting for justice rocks, but the scene goes to Hell when dudes get… \
468'''Spider''': Personal?\
469'''Neon Rider''': Totally
470
471An admired, easygoing face of the L.A. superhero community in the seventies and eighties. His powers are tech-based.
472----
473* AmbiguousSituation: He has yet to appear outside of the prequel, and in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsYouBelieveHer'', a GadgeteerGenius mentions that robot Penny's arm is made up of tech a lot like what Neon Rider "used" (in the past tense). However, it is unclear if this means he's dead, retired, moved to another city, or just upgraded his tech.
474* BadassBiker: He has a motocross rider costume (although it's unclear if he actually rides motorcycles, as he’s only specifically mentioned as driving a car and a ship described as "blazing gem in the sky"), fancy weapons, and the fighting skills to defeat a large number of villains on his own.
475* TheCape: He is a HumbleHero who never attacks villains in their personal lives, is hesitant to feed even the most bloodthirsty heroes and villains to Mourning Dove at first, and is one of the few seventies heroes to express open concern for the civilian victims of supervillains.
476* CharacterTics: Goodnight jokes that the way he rubs his chin is patented.
477* GeniusBruiser: His weapons are hi-tech inventions of possible alien origin, and he is also very muscular.
478* HumbleHero: When reporters flock to him after a battle, he points out that Palooka Joe, Cyber Angel, and Goodnight did more than he did. He is also cautious about making deals on behalf of the hero community because, while he enjoys respect and popularity, "nobody elected me president."
479* LanternJawOfJustice: He is a friendly superhero with a "chiseled" face.
480* SensualSpandex: He is a muscular man in a spandex costume, and female heroes and villains seem to enjoy his occasional flirting.
481* SuperheroPackingHeat: He fights crime, carries a high-tech pistol, and is implied to have the ability to give engines superhuman abilities.
482* TotallyRadical: He speaks in heavy slang in a PeriodPiece set over thirty years before it was written.
483--> ''[Y]our home is the funk. I don't dig your profession, but that rad pad almost makes it cool.''
484[[/folder]]
485
486[[folder:Cyber Angel]]
487!!Cyber Angel
488--> ''What kind of a hero are you?''
489
490A flashy and aggressive member of the superhero community in ''Literature/IDidNotGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence''. She is also mentioned once or twice in books set after that story.
491----
492* AbsurdCuttingPower: She carries a sword that can slice through fast-drying cement (to the misfortune of some supervillains who think they have just trapped her in such cement).
493* BodyPaint: She has no costume besides gloves and CombatStilettos, just neon blue acrylic body paint.
494* HeroicLineage: She is the daughter of another superhero, Queen of Swords.
495* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She is HotBlooded in a fight and insults Goodnight a few times, but she stops fighting Mourning Dove after Goodnight points out that they are both heroes and sides against a group of KnightTemplar heroes when they try to kill Mourning Dove to stop Spider from implementing the rules that will keep Los Angeles from staying a CrapsackWorld.
496* ScienceWizard: Her sword is implied to be magical, but she flies around on a HoverBoard.
497[[/folder]]
498
499
500[[folder:Palooka Joe]]
501!!Jake Bradley/Palooka Joe
502-->''That's right. Palooka Joe here, showing of the patented Palooka Picket Pulse Pistols. These little babies are not for sale, but thanks to the Bradley Corporation, you can buy my Palooka Carryable Climbing Kit right over the phone.''
503A construction-themed CorporateSponsoredSuperHero (actually a shill for his own company) who is a major character in ''Literature/IDidNotGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence''.
504----
505* AntiHero: He has many heroic deeds in his past and is happy for a chance to implement rules that make things safer for all heroes, but he also has FantasticRacism against robots, cyborgs, and mutants, can be an enormous jerk and UngratefulBastard to Goodnight, and is ruthless in fighting his rival Bismuth.
506* BatmanGrabsAGun: Joe has a reputation as a TheCape in the middle of a CrapsackWorld (although he refuses to recognize robot sentience and is fine with decapitating them), but Bismuth knowing his secret identity and putting his family in danger causes him to try to headshot the villain in cold blood, and their relationship worsens even more after Joe fails.
507* BeneathTheMask: He acts like a confident, inflexible BloodKnight for the most part, but after he and Bismuth make a truce to leave each other’s families alone, he sags in his chair, and his voice gets shaky, showing the feud and its stakes rattled him more than he cared to admit.
508* GadgeteerGenius: He has a wide variety of useful superhero tools that he made himself.
509* NervesOfSteel: Joe is very composed under dangerous and trying battle conditions.
510* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: Joe and his supposed sponsor Jake Bradley are the same man.
511[[/folder]]
512
513
514[[folder:Accesorizer]]
515!!Accesorizer
516->''It's after school, the tofu and fruit salad [at the TruceZone] is to die for, and I'm saving a friend from being bloody stupid and getting squashed by Delicious.''
517Palooka Joe's part-time KidSidekick, who is more down-to-earth than he is.
518----
519* GoodIsNotSoft: She is a well-meaning hero who would rather Joe and Bismuth's feud resolve peacefully, but if she thinks that one of them has to die, then she will help try to kill Bismuth.
520* ImprobableWeaponUser: She carries around lots of accessories like paper clips, bangles and handkerchiefs and has a power that lets her use them effectively in a fight.
521* KidSidekick: She is still a teenager and accompanies Joe on a lot of missions between class days.
522[[/folder]]
523
524!!Villains
525
526[[folder:Sharky]]
527!!Charlie Kamachi/Sharky
528
529->''"My uncle and his friends are always telling me that I'm not ready, and a superhero would clean the clock of any kid my age, but I'm stronger than any of them."''\
530
531A boy with the ability to turn into a large humanoid shark, who posts online about how he plans to commit a crime in the area. Very strong, but ''very'' stupid.
532----
533* BerserkButton: Is reluctant to fight Marcia when she wants to test her new powers until she insults his dead father and calls him an UnworthySuccessor to the mantle.
534* BullyTurnedBuddy: with Marcia, a bit tenuously at first, although it's debatable which one was the bully in the equation.
535* DumbMuscle: Emphasis on both dumb and muscle. He's strong enough to throw cars at people (he claims to be stronger than his uncle Leviathan and his friends), but is so stupid that he just can't use that strength effectively.
536* {{Fanboy}}: He geeks out over the Inscrutable Machine, even asking for their autographs. Their fight against Miss A is what convinced him to make his debut despite his age and lack of experience.
537* PutOnABus: In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIWorkForASupervillain'', Sharky isn't admitted into the same high school as the other characters due to his poor grades.
538* SkewedPriorities: The Inscrutable Machine's reaction to seeing him show off his powers just to score a point at football, in front of hundreds of people.
539* StarterVillain: Barely even a starter. He gets completely curb-stomped by the Inscrutable Machine in the team's first official outing.
540* UnfortunateNames:
541** "Sharky" is just... not a good name. According to Penny, there are a handful of bigger and more dangerous villains already using it, but even if they weren't, it's just terribly unimaginative. In the first chapter of the third book, both Penny and Marcia are shocked that he still hasn't come up with anything better.
542** Later, Marcia mentions that his father was one of the original villains with the "Sharky" name, and that he died, implying Charlie took it up in his memory.
543
544
545[[/folder]]
546
547[[folder:Lucyfar]]
548!!Lucyfar, the Princess of Darkness
549
550->''"Who wouldn't trust me, the Princess of Lies?"''\
551
552A woman with powers over shadow and darkness, Lucyfar claims to be Lucifer, Princess of Lies, first and most damned child of creation. Whether it's true or not is unclear (Penny's father certainly thinks it isn't), but she has some surprising powers when she gets serious.\
553
554She also has an unclear connection to Gabriel, who she claims is the Archangel Gabriel, her divine brother. They might be dating, but even if they're not, she clearly cares for him deeply.
555----
556* AffablyEvil: She may be a supervillain in name, but she does seem to be friendly with people on both sides of the community.
557* AmbiguouslyBi: In ''Nemesis'', Penny sees her blatantly flirting with a female supervillain, in addition to her relationship with Gabriel. Of course, considering Lucyfar's personality, it's even odds that she's just going to put the villainess in a cannon and launch her at the moon.
558-->'''Penny:''' Why was I taking literally anything Lucyfar ever did at face value?
559* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: According to Apparition, she sometimes forgets to commit a crime because she got distracted.
560-->'''Apparition:''' This is a lot like teaming with Lucyfar, only without forgetting to commit your crime because you got distracted by terrifying a man who kicked a dog.
561* BrotherSisterIncest: If Lucyfar is telling the truth about their divine origins and if they're actually dating, it would mean that she is dating her brother.
562* CoolCrown: She can summon one of black fire when she feels the need.
563* DatingCatwoman: She's the Catwoman in her relationship with Gabriel. Whether they're actually dating is unclear, but she certainly acts like it.
564* GenkiGirl: She squeals and laughs a lot.
565* TheGlomp: The first thing she does when she sees Gabriel is give him a huge hug, and she clearly had no intention of letting go anytime soon.
566* ImaginationBasedSuperpower: In addition to her knives, she can also create other objects out of shadow-stuff; she gives Penny a baseball cap to hide her face, and it's implied her dress is made of the same.
567* LetsGetDangerous: Normally, she's friendly and silly, even with her enemies. When she gets cursed twice in quick succession, as she's throwing off the curses, her voice is strained and dangerous, and she goes into her OneWingedAngel form to underline the point.
568* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: She could really be Lucifer, or she could just be a powerful sorceress with darkness themed magic. Penny's father obviously believes the latter, and also assumes that she doesn't really believe it either, and is just pretending to believe it so she can do whatever she wants. Given he denies the existence of magic altogether, its not hard to see why.
569* NoSell: She can shrug off magic with ease, though it appears to take some effort.
570* OneWingedAngel: An elegant black dress, skeletal wings tipped with knives, and oh yeah, a crown of black fire.
571* {{Satan}}: She claims to be the Archangel Lucifer herself. Most people don't believe it, but her wings, immunity to magic, and crown of black fire certainly lend weight to her claim.
572* SelfProclaimedLiar: Refers to herself as "the Princess of Lies".
573* SpyCatsuit: In ''Moon'', she wears a painted on one made out of her shadow-stuff. Penny notes that the only reason it isn't indecent is because it's so dark it absorbs too much light to see the naughty bits.
574* WingedHumanoid: In her first appearances in the backstory, she had skeletal wings tipped with knives. A lot of people in-universe wonder where they went, as they disappeared shortly after she encountered Gabriel. Turns out, she can stow them away easily, and only brings them out when she [[OneWingedAngel gets serious]].
575* WouldNotHurtAChild: Gabriel once convinced her to switch from robbing a store to fighting off the villains (her allies) who were attacking it, simply because there were children next door, and they could get hurt.
576
577[[/folder]]
578
579[[folder:Cybermancer]]
580!!Cybermancer
581
582->''"My theory may be wrong, but my model works. All I'm good at using it for is making explosives, but the community loves them."''\
583
584One of the first villains the Inscrutable Machine meets, "Cy" is a scientist who developed a theory on how magic interacted with the real world. Penny's father disproved the theory, but the methodology remains sound.
585----
586* BadassNormal: He doesn't actually have any powers. He just has a good understanding of how to mix magic with science, and enough magical teammates that he can get a hold of materials when he needs them.
587* BuffySpeak: He describes a dangerous and useful magical substance as "magic science goo." Which is descriptive enough, but still drives Penny's inner rational scientist mad.
588* MadScientist: He may not be a super genius, but he makes use of his knowledge of the interactions between magic and chemistry by creating various explosive weapons.
589* ScienceHero: More so than most science-themed supers, since he's not a super at all. One of the first things he does is buy a formula from Penny that lets him create random curse grenades.
590
591[[/folder]]
592
593[[folder:Apparition]]
594!!Polly Icarus/Apparition
595
596->''"I thought we didn't ask these kids over to talk business."''\
597
598The ghost of a civilian bystander killed in the crossfire by Mourning Dove. She is described as cold, gray, and cynical, but can still be excited about things.
599----
600* DemonicPossession: Her primary power is to take over her enemies temporarily. The victim appears to black out during this period.
601* {{Geek}}: She ''loves'' the Teddy Bears and Machine Guns game the protagonists play, but she can't use a computer unless she possesses someone.
602* IJustWantToHaveFriends: She has a few friends in Lucyfar, Cybermancer, and Chimera, but no one she can really get close to. [[spoiler:Turns out that this is the real reason Penny built Vera]].
603* MonochromeApparition: Of the grey variety.
604* OurGhostsAreDifferent:
605** Has minimal physical presence, is see through, invisible to cameras, and can possess people. It's also implied she's immune to any non-magical damage, judging by Lucyfar freaking out when Cybermancer almost drops a curse grenade in the middle of the group.
606** In ''Moon'', it's discovered that she can't leave the Earth, which surprised everyone, even Spider.
607* TragicIntangibility: Because she largely cannot interact with the world, she's incredibly lonely [[spoiler:until Penny gives her Vera]].
608
609[[/folder]]
610
611[[folder:Chimera]]
612!!Chimera
613
614->''"I can't believe they kept this cell intact for forty years. I'm the only prisoner in the building, and they had to hose the dust out of the room before they dragged me in. If they'd waited another minute my spine would have healed before they got me chained down."''\
615
616A very powerful shapeshifter who was assumed killed by Evolution decades ago. A small piece of him survived, and has been slowly regaining strength ever since.
617----
618* AffablyEvil: He's quite friendly to other supervillains, but he's still very very dangerous.
619* BewareMyStingerTail: He has a snake tail. Not a snake's tail, a tail that is a snake.
620* FromASingleCell: He can regenerate from a tiny piece of his body, though it took him multiple decades after his fight with Evolution.
621* GodzillaThreshold: When fighting Chimera, you fight to kill. Anything less will just piss him off, "lethal" blows will merely slow him down, and even annihilating most of his body will only put him out of commission for a few decades if you missed a piece.
622* HealingFactor: Implied to be related to his shapeshifting. He can easily regrow even vital organs, though it does take time.
623* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Is briefly mentioned to be gay, which means he's ''not'' distracted by Lucyfar's flirting. According to Lucyfar she finds this a useful trait in a partner.
624* OlderThanTheyLook: He looks like he's mid-twenties, same as Lucyfar and the rest of his team, but he was fully active forty years ago. On the other hand, it's not quite clear whether he was technically "alive" during that time, or how old he was when Evolution killed him. Regenerating might have knocked a few decades off his age, or he might genuinely be young.
625* VoluntaryShapeshifting: He prefers turning into combinations of various monsters, hence the name.
626
627[[/folder]]
628
629[[folder:Witch Hunter]]
630!!Witch Hunter
631
632->''"I can't promise not to kill you, boy."''\
633
634A swordsman trained in anti-magic techniques, Witch Hunter is a mercenary villain typically seen in the employ of the Council of Seven and a Half.
635----
636
637* AntiMagic: Implied. He was able to ignore Penny's sugar and toy themed inventions easily, at least.
638* MasterSwordsman: Known for collecting rare magical swords. Lucyfar claims he spends twenty hours a day practicing forms.
639* TheUnfettered: He tends to step back and toss a knife at a bystander when fights aren't going his way.
640* TheWitchHunter: Probably not literally, but we don't know enough about his personality to be sure.
641
642[[/folder]]
643
644[[folder:Lab Rat]]
645!!Lab Rat
646
647->''"Tasty. Absolutely tasty. Nobody even knows you're coming, and I get to bring you in!"''\
648
649A tall and gangly mad scientist who acts like a rat, even if he doesn't look like one. He is known for (besides his mannerisms) his vermin-based tech, such as cockroach sonar.
650----
651* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: He doesn't actually have any rat features, but his skittering way of walking and eye-popping escape artist skills brings rats to mind regardless.
652* CatchPhrase: His speaking style is very difficult to summarize, but one word he does like is "tasty," for anything good.
653
654[[/folder]]
655
656[[folder:Evil Eye]]
657!!Evil Eye
658
659->''"We're all on pins and needles to see what your tech looks like. Every report is different!"''\
660
661A laser-based mad scientist with a giant mechanical red eye. She's ostensibly a Chinatown weapons merchant, but in reality she just comes to hang out.
662----
663* EnergyWeapon: Her primary theme is lenses, which means she's very good with lasers.
664* LoopholeAbuse: Weapons are not allowed in Chinatown unless they're being sold. Evil Eye refuses to part with her weapons, so she sets up a table selling one or two minor things, while keeping her dozens of lasers for "display."
665* TranslatorMicrobes: Her eye can translate nearly anything, including really weird languages that no one has even heard of. At one point, Polly says the name "Irene," and the eye identifies that the correct spelling of that name (in the language Polly is using) involves dozens of bizarre characters that Evil Eye can't comprehend.
666
667[[/folder]]
668
669[[folder:Mechanical Aesthetic]]
670!!Mechanical Aesthetic
671
672->''"What, an invention getting out of control, like has happened to every mad scientist, ever?"''\
673
674Another of the mad scientists in LA, he acts like the Expert's equal, and helps to determine if new scientists deserve to be inducted into the community.
675----
676* ActionDad: In ''Henchmen'', Penny deduces that he has a child in the super club.
677* {{Steampunk}}: His aesthetic is, unsurprisingly, steampunk.
678
679[[/folder]]
680
681[[folder:The Expert]]
682!!The Expert
683
684->''"It is the official opinion of the mad science community that you may keep the name The Inscrutable Machine."''\
685
686The unofficial leader of the mad scientists in LA. He is cooly professional at all times, and has contacts with both heroes and villains.
687----
688* AffablyEvil: The evil part is arguable. He insists he's a reputable business man with only the slightest hint of a joke, and the Audit has been known to contact him when she needs to know what the mad scientists are thinking. Claire starts having lunches with him to build up her connections within the villain community.
689* TheLeader: Of the mad scientists in LA, at least when it comes time to make decisions like whether or not someone is really a mad scientist.
690* MadScientist: Cybermancer mentions him in the same breath as Penny's father, saying he's one of the "really scary" types who actually understands what he's inventing. The other scientists turn to him when it's time to judge whether or not someone deserves to be inducted into their community.
691* TheyWouldCutYouUp: He casually expresses a desire to dissect Marcia to discover how her powers work. He does check whether she's covered under supervillain child protection laws first, though.
692
693[[/folder]]
694
695[[folder:Master Scorpion]]
696!!Master Scorpion
697
698->''"Every week these men try to prove that they are strong enough to inherit my skills. This week you are one of them. Spar with me."''\
699
700''The'' OldMaster, Master Scorpion is quite possibly the most dangerous martial artist in the world. Every weekend in Chinatown, he fights younger men who want to prove themselves worthy of becoming his students. It's not clear if any ever succeed, but it's definitely rare.
701----
702* AffablyEvil: Other than being a bit curt, he's perfectly friendly. He even accepts Ray turning down his training offer with grace.
703-->'''Master Scorpion:''' I can wait. There are limits to what you can teach yourself. Sooner rather than later, you will come to me.
704* ArchEnemy: To Joe The Fist, so much that he remains a villain solely for the opportunity to defeat him (or train somebody who can) and states that once Joe "has been put in his place" he'll retire from villainy, and study strength and wisdom in the temples of the East.
705* BadassNormal: He's implied to be completely normal, but he still manages to curb-stomp Reviled.
706* EmpoweredBadassNormal: In the third book, we learn that he used the white Pure Fist scroll. Nobody knows exactly what it did, but both of the other known users of a Pure Fist scroll gained definite supernatural abilities.
707* EvilMentor: Subverted, as when Ray says he doesn't want to train to be a super villain, just to defeat Joe the Fist, and claims to have "no use for an apprentice who loves greed and violence for their own sake."
708* GreenEyedMonster: Shows a bit of this, combined with ThisCannotBe after seeing Marcia, who he considers UnfitForGreatness, effortlessly handling both of the Pure Fist Scrolls he's spent so long obsessing over.
709* HiddenDepths: Accepts Ray's reluctance to train
710* OldMaster: "Everyone knows who you are, Master Scorpion." He even tries to recruit Ray as his apprentice.
711-->'''Master Scorpion:''' I want you, boy. One year. Train under me for one year, and, when we are finished, you will humiliate Joe the Fist. You will fight him, and he will look like the child.
712
713[[/folder]]
714
715[[folder:Bull]]
716!!Bull
717
718->''"I'm a has-been, that's true. I'm still out of your league."''\
719
720A massive humanoid bull, the aptly named Bull is one of the most well-known villains, and was the strongest physical villain for a very long time. Now, he's sixty years old, tired, and just wishes he could make enough money to retire.
721----
722
723* TheBrute: He likes fighting, and that's about all he's good at. Unfortunately, it's not quite the most lucrative career.
724* TheCorruptor: Deliberately subverted, as he goes to great lengths to not pressure or influence any of the super-children to become either heroes or villains, urging them to take their own path, and often reminding them [[BeingEvilSucks that a super villains life is overrated]].
725* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: He stays away from his daughter so that she doesn't have to have a supervillain for a father. The kids try to tell him she'd rather have him than no father at all, and he promises to think about it.
726* GentleGiant: To kids, at least. He rescues the Inscrutable Machine from the thugs the Council of Seven and a Half hired, and then carries the girls around Chinatown on his shoulders.
727* GoKartingWithBowser: In the third book [[spoiler: he and Claudia show up at a construction site where a new subway tunnel is being dug through solid rock, and spend some father-daughter time smashing through the rock themselves. Since they're actually doing something helpful, nobody seems inclined to try and arrest them]].
728* JustifiedCriminal: Subverted. While looking like an inhuman monster didn't hurt his descent into villainy, it wasn't the root cause.
729-->'''Bull:''' I could give you kids a sad song and dance about how nobody wants to hire you when you look like a monster, but the truth is I didn’t need much of an excuse to get into this life. I like to fight. I always have. A job as a supervillain let me trade punches with the toughest men and women on the planet.
730* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: His wife is about four feet tall to his eight feet. They have a daughter. Penny's brain almost breaks thinking about it.
731-->'''Penny:''' I would just file this under "There's someone for everyone out there."
732* NobleDemon: He's willing to help fellow villains extort the city for money, but prefers to avoid risking any actual harm to the people. Best exemplified in the backstory when a villain named Third Horseman ransomed the city with a weaponized anthrax bomb. When he got the money, he set it off while sitting right on top of it. [[spoiler:Bull had been working for him at the time, and had switched out the anthrax for flour. He had no idea the guy was crazy enough to actually do it, he was just worried about someone getting poisoned during the disposal. Since he saved the entire city, the heroes let Bull keep the ransom money, which he promptly put into a trust for his wife and daughter]].
733-->'''Penny:''' No wonder he has so many friends.
734* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: According to Irene, even his family calls him Bull.
735* OpposeWhatYouSuffered: In the short story ''Summer of Lob,'' Evolution (an African-American man in the sixties who normally shapeshifts into an elemental form) comments that Bull is the first person who has seen him in his human form and hasn't had a racist reaction. Bull replies that growing up with stories about the generations of racism Irishmen like him endured in New York left him disinclined to look down on other people because of their ancestry.
736* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: When a bunch of super children start a club, the heroes and villains get together and decide to have Bull chaperone.
737* SeriesContinuityError: Bull could have been rounding his age and years as a supervillain, but his stated age and years as a villain are irreconcilable with a textbook entry in the series. In ''Summer of Lob'', he arrives in Los Angeles in summer of 1969 and briefly mentions that he's 19. In ''[[Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain Supervillain]]'', he mentions being sixty years old, during December. This places the series as beginning in winter of 2009-2010 or 2010-2011, depending on the season of his birthday. Reinforced in ''[[Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIveGotHenchmen Henchmen]]'', he says he was a villain for 40 years. Since this is before summer, this also puts the main books as starting 2009-2010. However, also in ''Henchmen'', a class textbook mentions some statues last seen in ''2011''.
738* WouldNotHurtAChild: He says that while he never enjoyed seeing children get hurt, now that he has a daughter of his own he's particularly vigilant about it.
739
740[[/folder]]
741
742[[folder:Spider]]
743!!Annabelle/Spider
744
745->''"I never break the rules, children. Not ever. I wrote them in the first place and have gone to great lengths to enforce them."''\
746
747One of the most influential supervillains in the city, she controls the entirety of Chinatown, and does a good enough job that heroes stay away--not only are they not allowed, they know they're not needed. She also wrote and enforces the hero/villain truce that minimizes casualties on both sides. Every weekend, she throws a massive villain-only party in Chinatown.
748----
749* BigCreepyCrawlies: [[spoiler:She's a spider the size of a car]].
750* {{Blackmail}}: She's fond of the carrot and stick approach. Do well under her, you get rewarded. Disobey her, and whatever dark secrets you have get spread around to a few key people.
751* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Spider actually has quite a bit of a sense of morality. It just doesn't necessarily match that of human morality.
752* TheChessmaster: Using spider imagery rather than chess imagery, but yes. For one thing, it took her less than a week to discover the secret identities of the Inscrutable Machine, and quickly determined the best way to blackmail them.
753* TheDreaded: You don't fight Spider. You just don't.
754* EvilMentor: At the end of the third book Spider [[spoiler: offers to be this for Penny.]]
755* ExactWords: At the end of ''Moon'', she sends Penny's parents a letter filled with what are basically random facts taken out of context.
756** "[[spoiler:Your daughter is technically unharmed, but has been the victim of a practical joke by the Inscrutable Machine, a practical joke that has gotten out of their hands]]." (technically true, though it requires defining [[spoiler:"practical joke" as "leaving the planet;" in that context, the joke was on their parents, but they became their own victims, at which point Spider took things out of their hands and fixed it]]).
757** "Penelope is [[spoiler:trapped in the field of Fourth Dimension's temporal negation device, in her clubhouse under the middle school she attends. Her clubmates are trapped with her. So, unfortunately, is the device itself]]." (one hundred percent true, but missing some key context, namely [[spoiler:that they agreed to go in to provide plausible deniability]])
758** "It is the nature of high schoolers to misunderstand boundaries and push too hard, but this was not acceptable." (completely true, also has absolutely nothing to do with the Inscrutable Machine)
759** "I will make it clear to the Inscrutable Machine that until your daughter enters the superhero world of her own volition, she is not a target even for minor harassment." (the letter ''is'' her making it clear, as in assuring Penny that they won't have to worry about getting harassed)
760* GenreSavvy: She's well aware how supervillains tend to fight each other more than cooperate, so when she pulls a job, everyone wins or loses as one. If the goal is met, everyone is paid. If it isn't, no one is. Furthermore, she promises that if they succeed, her next priority will be to rescue anyone who was captured during the job.
761* ObfuscatingStupidity: Spider lets her MadScientist creator think that she only has the intelligence of a dog in the prequel novel.
762--> '''Spider:''' Asking to have my cage cleaned [[FedToTheBeast or a diet free of moral qualms]] would reveal to my creator that I am smarter than the dog he treats me as. I learned very early on that the more successful the experiment, the sooner he takes it apart to find out what he did right.
763* PetTheDog:
764** Twice in ''Moon''.
765*** When She Who Wots mentions that a boy [[KissOfDeath got to know her better]], Spider promises to get him medical attention.
766*** When the Inscrutable Machine returns from their mission, Claire's belongings are stacked up in the stairwell, out of sight of Spider, since she knows how scared she is.
767** In ''Spider'', we discover that the entire friendly environment of the LA super community came about because Spider wanted to pay Goodnight back for rescuing her.
768* PragmaticVillainy: She always considers how a situation can benefit her before acting. However, she is so pragmatic that Goodnight initially mistakes her for a hero. She is very good at understanding that anything that benefits everyone will benefit her as well. By the end of the prequel novel ''Spider'', she is well on her way to making herself indispensable to the super community after just a few days.
769* RulesLawyer: Played with. She notes that she wrote the truce heroes/villains live by, and that she follows both the letter and the spirit of it. However, she's not above tricking heroes, such as by announcing that she's planning a major attack on Monday, and then launching a half-dozen minor attacks at the same time so that they don't know which is the important one.
770* SneakySpider: Spider is a [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] who controls Chinatown and has a large influence not just over other supervillains, but also over hero/villain relations. Although she adheres to a strict code of conduct, she's also not above exploiting the rules to mess with heroes.
771* {{Telepathy}}: Maybe. Lucyfar mentions at one point "I can hear her voice in my head," but Lucy is whimsical enough that she could have been speaking metaphorically, and just meant she knew what Spider would say in that situation. It would certainly explain who she can speak with a pleasant female voice despite [[spoiler:being a giant Black Widow with no human mouth]].
772
773[[/folder]]
774
775[[folder:The Butchered Man]]
776!!The Butchered Man
777
778->''"My associates prefer to think of themselves as businessmen who have interests in our community. I handle purchases and direct negotiations personally."''\
779
780The "half" of the Council of Seven and a Half, the Butchered Man is a cripple contained in a cyborg shell made out of what looks like a department store mannequin. He is a pleasant businessman who repeatedly expresses annoyance at the rather heavy-handed way his colleagues do things.
781----
782* AffablyEvil: Despite the fact that the Inscrutable Machine has caused a bit of trouble for the Council by the time they meet him, he's quite pleasant.
783* {{Cyborg}}: Why he chose a mannequin is unclear, but mad science rarely makes sense.
784* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''Moon'', he hires Lucyfar (and by extension the Inscrutable Machine) to raid one of his own labs in order to shut down dangerous experiments.
785
786[[/folder]]
787
788[[folder:She Who Wots]]
789!!Abigail Tinsley/She Who Wots
790
791->''"Chains. The whole world is chains. Fair and unfair are chains. Even flesh and blood are chains. It's so much fun to wear chains. My medication is a chain, but it's not a very good one."''\
792
793A very strange villain with a power that manifests as a massive black shadow-demon thing with lots of tentacles. Most of the time, she seems unaware of her surroundings.
794----
795* CreatorInJoke: The dictionary will tell you that Wot is a humorous way of saying What. So basically, her name is "She Who Says What?"
796** Wot is also the present tense first- and third-person singular of the archaic verb Wit, meaning "to know" or "to come to know."
797* IdenticalStranger: Penny notes that she looks disturbingly like an older version of herself. She's pretty sure that it's just a coincidence. Pretty sure.
798* KissOfDeath: After she gives a boy a rather chaste kiss on the lips, he is paralyzed and his eyes start bleeding. It's not clear if she did it on purpose or not.
799-->'''She Who Wots:''' Andrew Stickler wanted to get to know me better. Now he does.\
800'''Spider:''' I'll see that he gets medical attention.
801* WordsCanBreakMyBones: She has a similar power to the Librarian, fighting her with words that fly off the pages of books.
802
803[[/folder]]
804
805[[folder:Rage]]
806!!Rachel Fitzclaire/Rage
807
808->''"I told Cassie not to pick a fight with an Akk, but I guess it turned out okay."''\
809
810Ruth's housemate, and part of the powerful supervillain pair Rage and Ruin. She is, unsurprisingly, known for her temper.
811----
812* EnemyCivilWar: She is able to confuse the library guardians into fighting each other, but Ray breaks the effect.
813* HairTriggerTemper: What did you expect? Funnily enough, in our first formal introduction to her, she's calm and amused while Ruth does all the yelling.
814* HeterosexualLifePartners: Namechecked; she insists that she and Ruth are just friends who live together and happen to be raising a child (Ruth's sister) together. [[ShipperOnDeck Claire has a hard time buying that]].
815* PaperThinDisguise: Her disguise isn't terrible, but once you notice the cybernetic tattoos that she has covered with makeup, her identity is blatantly obvious.
816-->'''Rachel:''' You have good self-control for a thirteen-year-old, Penny, but I need a better disguise if a kid ''[[BlatantLies I've never met before]]'' can spot me.
817* SecretKeeper: One of the supervillains who knows Penny is Bad Penny. She seems to find it funny to hide this from Penny's parents.
818
819[[/folder]]
820
821[[folder:Ruin]]
822!!Ruth Patter/Ruin
823
824->''"If I'd known my baby sister was being taught on machines older than she is, I'd have given you a piece of my mind long ago!"''\
825
826Cassie's sister, and part of the powerful supervillain pair Rage and Ruin.
827----
828* BerserkButton: She doesn't have a HairTriggerTemper like Rachel, but once her button ''is'' pressed, watch out.
829
830[[/folder]]
831
832[[folder:Cleric]]
833->''"Tyrant wants to change the world. He dreams of a better world, a world of honor and wonder and adventure. A world where beauty is more important than numbers and everyone has a chance to prove their ability, if they want to. My lord long ago decided he was unlikely to accomplish that without conquest, but if he can change the world without ruling it, he will do so gladly."'''
834
835A charismatic villain, who convinces Magenta Slade to take an after-school job with him.
836----
837* AffablyEvil: Like many villains in the series, Cleric is a witty person with plenty of moments of warmth and compassion. However, he ''is'' working for someone who wants to TakeOverTheWorld [[spoiler:and he's willing to kill civilians to further their goals, unlike most of the villains Penny deals with.]]
838* BenevolentBoss: Cleric is very encouraging to Magenta, is careful not to put her in any danger, and even has a SoProudOfYou moment when she [[spoiler:foils his master plan out of moral conviction.]]
839* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Cleric and Tyrant are much less sinister than their rival Organism One, whose plan involves UnwillingRobotization of the entire human race. When Organism One transforms an innocent teenager to send a message to Cleric, he is genuinely upset and unsettled.
840* MouthOfSauron: Cleric is a servant of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Tyrant]], who never appears in person. Instead, Cleric goes around carrying out his jobs and insisting to everyone who will listen that Tyrant is NotEvilJustMisunderstood.
841* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Magenta spends most of the book convinced that Cleric is merely an idealistic nerd who's in the thrall of a real villain. In the climax, he displays a lot more sinister competence and [[spoiler:tries to use a device to ram knowledge into everyone in the city's head even though this will knock them unconscious and cause catastrophic traffic collisions.]]
842* VillainsNeverLie: [[spoiler: When a horrified Magenta realizes how dangerous his master plan is, he insists that he never lied to her or misled her about the fact that sacrifices would be necessary, and that she was willfully blind.]]
843* WellIntentionedExtremist: Cleric insists that Tyrant's plan to take over the world will make million of people kinder, happier, and braver in the long run [[spoiler:even if it means killing hundreds or thousands of them.]]
844
845[[/folder]]
846
847[[folder:Mammon]]
848!!Mammon
849--> ''I'm not a weenie. I'm noooot.''
850A demonic CListFodder villain who craves respect but does little to earn it.
851----
852* BigRedDevil: He is a red-skinned demon from Hell and tries to enhance the image by dying his hair black and wearing prosthetic hooves.
853* FalselyReformedVillain: After being arrested for being an accessory to murder in ''Literature/IDidNotGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence'', he is released by the time Penny reaches her teens and becomes an evangelist preaching benevolent platitudes. However, he is still the same scheming and amoral supervillain as before, and the phoniness of his preachings is blatantly obvious.
854* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Mammon is a posturing suck-up and fool, but he will gleefully kidnap innocent women and children and sell them to a sadistic MadScientist or sacrifice them himself.
855* PretenderDiss: More competent and/or moral supervillains rightfully mock his involvement in their circle just as frequently as superheroes do, and "Poseur" is one of the kinder names they call him.
856[[/folder]]
857
858[[folder:Delicious]]
859!!Delicious
860-> ''My own property is violence forbidden. Do you all hear me? All fights here are mine. Begin one, and I end it.''
861A particularly powerful, approachable, and influential supervillain who is introduced in the prequel. Her body is made of candy, and she is a LivingLegend and apparent RetiredBadass by Penny's era.
862----
863* BloodKnight: She enjoys fighting, both on jobs and for fun, due to a combination of possessing skilled techniques and being NighInvulnerable whenever anyone tries to hurt her back.
864* TheDreaded: Due to her status as a NighInvulnerable BloodKnight, whenever she shows up somewhere, "the cops and feds shut their eyes and ears and [go] looking for easier prey. You know, like cyborg lava whales."
865* {{Metamorphosis}}: She undergoes a regular skin-shedding transformation that, at the very least, makes her change colors. She also has spikes sticking out of her skin in ''Literature/IDidNotGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence'', while none are mentioned in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImQueenOfTheDead''.
866* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She runs a TruceZone for super-powered individuals who don't look human and want to live away from those who shun them. Delicious enforces the neutrality of the area sternly but fairly. She can make intelligent observations about the state of hero-villain affairs but won't make unilateral decisions for her community.
867* StatuesqueStunner: She is seven feet tall and has thickly muscled limbs, but she also has an impressive figure that she occasionally takes the trouble of covering with a bikini.
868* VocalDissonance: She is seven foot tall with claws and abs that "looked harder than rock," but has a sultry FemmeFatale voice.
869[[/folder]]
870
871[[folder:Entropy]]
872!!Entropy
873->''You are not getting out of here without giving me Mirabelle. [[KnightTemplarBigBrother Do that and you will have a head start in running away while I get her to safety]].''
874A mutated young man with a literally destructive aura who is one of the more mysterious and aggressive supervillains, albeit one who respects Spider's rules and is one of her main enforcers.
875----
876* AmbiguouslyBi: He ends up in a relationship with a female hero but also idolizes Penny's father in a way that feels potentially romantic.
877* AscendedExtra: He only tends to make quick cameos until ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImAGiantMonster'', which is narrated by his sister.
878* BigBrotherInstinct: He's at his angriest when dealing with anyone who he thinks puts his sister in danger. This can occasionally manifest in a KnightTemplarBigBrother fashion, especially since he seems to hate Penny for starting the Superkids Club that Mirabelle loves but is endangered by.
879* CatsAreMean: He is a human-cat hybrid who is one of the more temperamental villains in the series.
880* DatingCatwoman: He becomes obsessed with defeating BewareTheSillyOnes hero Pretty Bubbles and ends up in a relationship with her.
881* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Even his mother and sister just call him Entropy.
882* PersonOfMassDestruction: He has bad luck powers that he makes a concentrated effort to control. They may not ''seem'' too powerful, but when Mirabelle sees a sniper trying to kill her brother, she isn't just terrified that he'll die but also worries that if the sniper only wounds Entropy, then her brother might inadvertently kill everyone within several city blocks while lashing out in pain.
883[[/folder]]
884
885[[folder:Foxxy]]
886!!"Foxxy" Kitt
887->''Bismuth's little girl was in the house when Joe sent in the cops. Foxxy wants that to never happen again, and whatever Foxxy wants, Foxxy gets.''
888A fox-human hybrid and friend of Bull and Goodnight. She is mostly in retirement with her family even before Spider's emergence.
889----
890* AscendedExtra: She appears in one scene of ''Literature/IDidNotGiveThatSpiderSuperhumanIntelligence'' but is the {{Deuteragonist}} of the short story "Summer of Lob." Prior to that, her daughter was apparently co-parenting Claudia with Irene, calling her on the phone to report the happy news in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIveGotHenchmen''.
891* PunchClockVillain: She thinks Dr. Righteous is a dangerous nut job, but keeps protecting him even after learning his evil plan because he hasn't paid her yet.
892* ThirdPersonPerson: She likes to call herself Foxxy instead of saying "I."
893* StatuesqueStunner: She is a sultry FemmeFatale who is only slightly shorter than Bull.
894[[/folder]]
895
896[[folder:Dr. Righteous]]
897!!Dr. Righteous
898-> ''These items contain nothing that the furniture I could have bought in a store does not. Stealing them ensures a certain wildness that suits my purpose, but the intent of today's work is to make a statement. Rest assured, Bull, before our work is finished, you will get all the superpowered attention you desire. I am finished playing by small rules set by small men.''
899
900A furniture-obsessed MadScientist who employs Bull in the short story "Summer of Lob.'' He creates living furniture to serve his needs and launches into a mysterious plan with a botanist who has recently converted to villainy.
901----
902* TheCorruptor: He turns a peaceful botanist into a cackling supervillain (even suggesting her codename) with a BreakingSpeech about how they are miles ahead of everyone else in their fields but, if they live by society’s rules, they have to "stay up late at night coming up with baby steps that might let others understand a fraction of what is obvious to you at a glance," only to be ignored by their peers and left with the knowledge that it will be generations before normal scientists understand their work.
903* HiddenAgendaVillain: His exact goals are mysterious until the climax of the story, where he goes into a loud rant about how much [[spoiler:he hates cars and wants to remove them from the planet.]]
904* NotSoHarmlessVillain: He is a very polite and quirky man who seems to have a zany scheme that would fit in well with UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, but the word "genocide" is used to describe his ultimate scheme.
905* PhonyDegree: He calls himself "Dr." Righteous and did go to college, but his dissertation wasn't accepted and his title is self-appointed.
906* SeriousBusiness: In his eyes, not using coasters on furniture is as unforgivable of a sin as filling the skyline with smog, and both offenses make him homicidal.
907[[/folder]]
908
909[[folder:Bismuth]]
910!!Bismuth
911-> ''Bismuth doesn't sell tickets! He believes rock-and-roll should be free, and merchandise expensive and gaudy!''
912A LivingLegend rock-themed villain in the seventies, who gets into an EscalatingWar with Palooka Joe in the prequel novel.
913----
914* BewareTheSillyOnes: He may be a kooky, self-aggrandizing man, but he is incredibly ruthless toward his enemies when he feels wronged.
915* CrazyPrepared: His battle plans and escape routes often show a degree of strategy that benefits him.
916* DarkAndTroubledPast: He references once being a "nobody" who had no one there for him besides his robot friend Moog.
917* ItsPersonal: Bismuth is initially lighthearted about knowing the secret identity of Palooka Joe, but becomes a lot more hostile after seeing Joe kill his robot sidekick/best friend and send the police to his house while his daughter was there. Upon learning that his overzealous henchman Mammon nearly murdered Joe's family, he shows mild distaste but is initially unrepentant.
918* MrFanservice: His long hair and tight, flashy wardrobe get some alluring descriptions.
919* MusicalAssassin: His musical instruments can hypnotize people, shoot energy blasts, and drain energy.
920* TheRockStar: He is a handsome villain with music-themed powers and has a thing for pirate rock concerts that many civilians are overjoyed to experience.
921[[/folder]]
922
923
924[[folder:Ampexia]]
925!!Ampexia
926->''A seaside mansion. This is going to rock. My lair is only a sealed-up bookstore. It does have good soundproofing.''
927
928A "music-themed tech thief" who helps Penny try to prove her body-swapping experience in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsYouBelieveHer.''
929----
930* ButNowIMustGo: After the situation is resolved, she half-jokingly calls Penny a doofus and then casually strolls off without any planning for future interactions.
931* ClassyCatBurglar: Unlike most supervillains, she sees herself as a thief and not a fighter and has the fancy equipment to match.
932* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: She is a thief, but her mother and grandmother were superheroes.
933[[/folder]]
934
935!!Superkids Club
936
937[[folder:Lightning Wisp]]
938!!Cassie Patter/Lightning Wisp/Arc Flash
939
940->''"I've been waiting for this moment all my life."''\
941
942A girl from Penny's class with lightning-themed powers. After several ill-fated attempts to show up Penny, she ends up as a part of the group.
943----
944
945* GadgeteerGenius: She doesn't seem to be a full MadScientist, just a mechanically-inclined teen who can use her power to enhance her inventions.
946* {{Robosexual}}: At least in an "IfItsYouItsOkay" way for Robot Penny in the fifth book.
947* ShockAndAwe: She can produce a powerful electric charge, which she often uses to power her inventions.
948* SingleTargetSexuality: Penny is the only person Cassie has eyes for.
949
950[[/folder]]
951
952[[folder:Will]]
953!!Will
954
955->''"Can we make up some applications? I know some other super powered kids who'd like to join."''\
956
957A speedster from Penny's class, he stole Penny's helmet in Chinatown but was caught by Ray.
958----
959* SecretKeeper: Since he pulled Penny's helmet off, he is well aware of exactly who she is. And since he exposed her in front of dozens of supervillains, he's responsible for a good chunk of the community becoming {{Secret Keeper}}s from Penny's parents.
960* SideBet: He made a bet with Cassie that Penny was the "doesn't know what they're doing" flavor of MadScientist.
961* SuperSpeed: Fast enough to grab Penny's helmet before she knew what was happening. Not fast enough to escape Ray after the fact.
962
963[[/folder]]
964
965[[folder:Hermes]]
966!!Theodore "Teddy"/Hermes the Alchemist
967
968->''"Wicked!"''\
969
970A young boy with the ability to create and manipulate nearly all types of matter.
971----
972* CatchPhrase: He shouts "Wicked!" every five minutes.
973* ElementalArmor: He mostly uses his ability to make a rock shell out of sugar, which is surprisingly durable.
974* MundaneUtility: He didn't have much talent for fighting and was doing pretty poorly in the tournament, but he was invaluable in fixing damage to the scenery incurred by everybody's fighting.
975
976[[/folder]]
977
978[[folder:Barbara]]
979!!Barbara Tinsley
980
981->''"I don't really want to do heroing or villainy. I'm here because my step-mom told me to come. She said it only makes sense that I'll make friends in a club with other kids who have super powers."''\
982
983The much saner younger sister of She Who Wots, with a similar powerset. She mostly stays away from the flashier magic, however.
984----
985* AddictiveMagic: Barbara indicates that Dark Magic is like this for her, and Avery notes that she can feel the pull of addiction in Barbara's aura.
986* BadPowersGoodPeople: She uses Voodoo dolls to give people long-distance acupuncture. "If I can stick a pin in somebody from a distance, and I can heal them by sticking a pin in them, then why not do both at the same time?" Penny's power insists that magic ''does not work that way''. Barbara's spiritual guardian finds her disbelief amusing.
987* ElegantGothicLolita: She wears elaborate goth dresses, a different one every day. Penny says it must be pretty expensive.
988* TheMedic: She uses her magic acupuncture to serve this purpose, healing the other club members after some rough sparring or a poorly planned heroic/villainous adventure.
989* SpellBook: In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImQueenOfTheDead'', Barbara reveals this to be the source of her powers:
990--> '''Barbara''': "If I have a superpower at all, it's finding magic books. Too many books. The unpleasant books. After a while, they give you magic."
991* StrongFamilyResemblance: Once you get past the fact that she's not bugnuts crazy, she looks a lot like her sister. This in turn [[IdenticalStranger makes her look a lot like Penny]].
992* WillingChanneler: She has a magical guardian spirit, like her sister, but has much more control over it. Possibly helped by the spirit itself seeming much calmer and friendlier.
993
994[[/folder]]
995
996[[folder:Beaddown]]
997!!Charlotte/Beaddown
998
999->''"Don't worry if you can't fight. We'll protect you. That's what heroes are for, right?"''\
1000
1001A girl with the power to control jewelry, specifically beads. ''Lots'' of beads.
1002----
1003* LethalHarmlessPowers: She can telekinetically control beads. This is just as useless as it sounds while she uses her powers unimaginatively. Once Penny gives her pointers, she becomes far more powerful. She can control ''lots'' of beads at once. She can make skates for herself, slip up other people, shoot a ball of beads the size of a bowling ball, and all that is without playing dirty.
1004
1005[[/folder]]
1006
1007[[folder:Gathering Shadow]]
1008!!Sue Perrier/Gathering Shadow/Gathering Dark
1009
1010->''"My parents are never going to let me go to where the supervillains hang out."''\
1011
1012One of Marcia's friends, and the only one who stuck by her in the third book. She has powers over darkness, letting her listen out of any shadow and move anything that has a shadow.
1013----
1014* CastingAShadow: She can use shadows to touch and manipulate things, although more often in ''Don't Tell My Parents I'm Queen of the Dead'', she uses it as a PortableHole to bypass obstacles.
1015* DarkIsNotEvil:
1016** In the early books, there is absolutely nothing evil about her powers. At worst, they're mildly gray, since she can use them to eavesdrop. Her parents are fully convinced that DarkIsEvil, though, and refuse to acknowledge them in any way as if that will make them turn into something else.
1017** In ''Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm Queen of the Dead'', her parents get a bit more a sympathetic spotlight, and it sounds like they're more concerned that her seemingly villainous powers will drive her into a career of villainy.
1018* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Inverted. She's the only person in the club who hates Penny. She hangs around because Marcia does, but still doesn't like her.
1019* PutOnABus: In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIWorkForASupervillain'', Sue's parents send her to a different high school than her friends to influence her not to use her powers. [[TheBusCameBack Sue returns as a major supporting character]] in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImQueenOfTheDead''.
1020* TrueCompanions: She's friends with Marcia both when their in the popular crowd but sticks with her when she radically changes her life and becomes a BloodKnight and borderline villain. It is implied that this is partially because Sue [[ClosetGay has romantic feelings for Marcia.]]
1021
1022[[/folder]]
1023
1024[[folder:Claire Deletere]]
1025!!Claire Winter/Claire Deletere
1026
1027->''"Watch, and '''listen''', in awe!"''\
1028
1029A high school girl who looks a lot like Claire Lutra. She has emotion control powers, and prefers to use them to make other people act as she would rather than actually doing anything herself.
1030----
1031* EmotionControl: She can transfer emotions around. Her most common trick is to transfer all her emotions to someone else, making them act essentially as a remote copy of herself.
1032* OneSteveLimit: Penny often refers to her internally as "The Other Claire" to avoid confusing her with E-Claire.
1033
1034[[/folder]]
1035
1036[[folder:Mirabelle]]
1037!!Mirabelle
1038
1039->''"I can't fight. I break easily."''\
1040
1041Entropy's little sister, a shy glass CatGirl. Daughter of Starshine. She was homeschooled most of her life since she can't pass for human, but as Penny's school became more used to superpowers, she transferred in.
1042----
1043* CatGirl: She has cat ears and a tail, made of glass the same as the rest of her.
1044* HealingHands: She can reverse entropy, allowing her to not only heal wounds but also reverse damage to non-organic objects.
1045* ProperLady: She is calm, polite, and well-dressed. Penny specifically compares her to the Jupiter colonists.
1046* SiblingYinYang: Her power is literally reverse entropy, repairing things, which is of course the opposite of her brother Entropy's powers.
1047
1048[[/folder]]
1049
1050!!Others
1051
1052[[folder:The Machine]]
1053!!The Machine
1054
1055Penny's first and greatest invention, a strange mechanical centipede that can recycle anything, growing larger in the process.
1056----
1057* AmbiguousSituation: How intelligent is the Machine? He never acts without Penny giving direct orders, but he's very good at interpreting those orders correctly, even using abilities she wasn't aware he had. In ''Nemesis'', [[spoiler:when Penny's power steals her body, he even refuses to obey the fake at all]].
1058* DoAnythingRobot: Penny built him to recycle computer parts. Demonstrated abilities include: Obeying voice commands, recycling and sorting all forms of matter, all forms of energy (except possibly kinetic), using recycled materials to grow, upgrading himself, building miniature copies of himself, and detecting rare elements even through hundreds of feet of trash and dirt.
1059* LoyalPhlebotinum: He responds to Penny's voice commands, and ''only'' her commands. Penny's Dad tries to come up with an explanation for this, but fails. He initially thinks there must be some sort of voice recognition module inside him, but he can't find one. [[spoiler:It appears that Penny linked him to her soul. When her power steals her body, the Machine refuses to obey the power or even wrap around her wrist, but obeys Penny in her robot body exactly as normal]].
1060
1061[[/folder]]
1062
1063[[folder:Vera]]
1064!!Vera
1065
1066An artificial Conqueror orb Penny built, which uses a ceramic shell to take the shape of a stylized pixie. She is curious and childlike in many ways, and especially shows an interest in magic.
1067----
1068* ArtificialIntelligence: She understands English, can take her own initiative, and even make friends.
1069* BerserkButton: Like the Conquerors themselves, Puppeteer technology is one of the few things that drives her crazy.
1070* EnergyBall: Like Ray, she can launch an explosive ball of energy from her hands.
1071* ImmuneToBullets: She projects a field that rots gunpowder in the vicinity, making guns useless. After seeing her rot Puppeteer flesh, Penny wonders if the Conquerors originally designed the field for that, and only found it useful in other capacities once they reached Earth.
1072* StarfishLanguage: She can speak the Conqueror language, which humans hear as nothing but a series of dings. The Apparition can understand her, though.
1073
1074[[/folder]]
1075
1076[[folder:Archimedes]]
1077!!Archimedes
1078
1079A bioweapon Penny creates in the shape of a cat. He's mindless on his own, but can be operated by attaching his tail to the back of someone's neck like a plug.
1080----
1081* AmbiguousGender: Penny never actually checks his gender, for understandable reasons.
1082* AmbiguousSituation: He's supposed to be mindless, and goes into hibernation when not attached to anyone. But as the book goes on, he starts doing more and more without Penny's input...
1083* AmplifierArtifact: Juliet refers to him as an "amplifier."
1084* MindControl: He gives his wearer moderate mind control powers, focused by speaking. Penny typically points him like a gun and yells.
1085
1086[[/folder]]
1087
1088[[folder:Juliet]]
1089!!Juliet
1090
1091->''"I feel like I am the ship. It's alive, and I believe smarter than me, but it can't think for itself. Does that make sense?"''\
1092
1093A patient of the Red Panacea Clinic, she was saved by Harvey and put into suspended animation for decades. She's a cheerful, friendly girl, who seems completely unconcerned by the fact that she's now half goat.
1094----
1095* HalfHumanHybrid: Puppeteer technology and a human MadScientist combined to turn her into a humanoid goat with at least one extra pair of eyes. She doesn't mind.
1096* NotSoImaginaryFriend: Harvey, who she claims to be able to see and hear at all times. Penny quickly realizes that it's perfectly possible, and later finds out [[spoiler:he's the mind behind the Puppeteer forces in the system, who gave up conquering for her sake]].
1097* ThePollyanna: She's always friendly and smiling, despite the fact that she's a horrifying goat-thing.
1098
1099[[/folder]]
1100
1101[[folder:Polly]]
1102!!Polly Vinyl Chloride
1103
1104->''"Of course. I'm very organized for a grownup."''\
1105
1106Bull's little sister, who appears to be either a yellow plastic robot or a girl wearing a yellow plastic robot suit. She is logical at all times, but also friendly and emotional.
1107----
1108* CatchPhrase: Variants of "It just makes sense." and "I'm good at X for a grown-up"
1109* ParentalSubstitute: She is step-mother to the Tinsley girls, and is the only reason they're as stable as they are.
1110* PunnyName: Polyvinyl chloride is the full name for PVC, a common synthetic plastic polymer.
1111
1112[[/folder]]
1113
1114[[folder:"Bad Penny"]]
1115!!Bad Penny/Robot Penny/Heart of Gold
1116
1117->''"I knew immediately I'm not you. I remember being you. I'll be honest, Penny, as the Penny looking ahead to life as a robot double, this is not the kindest plan we've ever come up with. We've been running way too scared."''\
1118
1119A robotic duplicate of Penny, copied into a gold heart. She has all of Penny's memories up to the transfer, but is more moral and has no interest in supervillainy. She was only made to serve as a decoy to give Penny an opening to confess everything to her parents.
1120----
1121* ApologeticAttacker: [[spoiler:When she's locking Penny in for the mind-swap, she's constantly assuring her that she'll be taken care of once the switch is done]].
1122* GoodCounterpart: She has no interest in supervillainy, and is in fact kind of annoyed at Penny most of the time. [[spoiler:This leads to her trying to steal Penny's body so she can put her superpower to good use... which is exactly what the power was counting on]].
1123* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Gold doesn't corrupt. Initially, Penny couldn't find enough gold so she made a steel heart instead--and that copy immediately turned evil, so she went back and made the gold version.
1124* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Penny's superpower knew that a perfectly moral version of Penny would eventually try to steal Penny's body for the greater good. During the transfer, the superpower was able to mess it up so that Penny got stuck in the steel heart, Robot Penny stayed in the gold heart (which no longer had a body), and the superpower got Penny's body]].
1125
1126[[/folder]]
1127
1128[[folder:'''Spoiler Character''']]
1129!!Penny's Superpower/Evil Penny
1130
1131->''"AH HA HA HA HA HA! That felt so good! What is your problem that you couldn't admit you love explosions?"''\
1132
1133The strange thing in the back of Penny's head with all the knowledge in the universe. To be more specific, it's the part of Penny's brain with ''access'' to all the knowledge in the universe. The distinction is important because the superpower itself has no personality, but the part of Penny that can actually use it does.
1134----
1135* {{Foreshadowing}}: This has been coming for a long time.
1136** Just to start, every single time Penny uses her power, it's like someone else takes control. She even refers to it as a separate entity, and builds things more by negotiating with an unspeakably powerful entity than actually understanding what she's doing.
1137** In ''Moon'', Penny's Mom mentions that people with mental powers have a surprisingly high rate of a JekyllAndHyde dynamic. And of course there's the moment where Mourning Dove flat-out tells Penny that her power will turn against her, and offers to kill it before that can happen.
1138** In ''Nemesis'', not only does Mourning Dove repeat her earlier offer, but the fact that Penny's power is perfectly willing to make the robotic heart twice when it normally never repeats itself was a big warning sign that it ''really'' wanted a robot body available.
1139* GrandTheftMe: She steals Penny's body in ''Nemesis'' because Penny never lets her do anything "fun" (read: blow stuff up).
1140* PsychopathicWomanchild: She just wants to blow stuff up, and build guns that blow stuff up, and altogether destroy things. When she successfully steals Penny's body, the first thing she does is smash the heart of gold, despite the fact that it poses literally no threat to her. When she finds that the Machine won't obey her, she screams and throws it against the wall.
1141* SplitPersonality: She's Penny's insane, gleefully violent, and altogether uncontrolled side, who only got the body briefly whenever Penny needed something made. She eventually got fed up with being prevented from doing whatever she wanted and hatched a plan to get rid of Penny for good.
1142
1143[[/folder]]
1144
1145
1146[[folder:Magenta Slade]]
1147!!Magenta Slade/Pawn
1148->''"I felt weird and out of place slipping into an empty restroom when the final bell rang, to stick my face into my purple book and teleport to my after-school job being evil.''"\
1149
1150The protagonist of the spinoff ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIWorkForASupervillain''. She befriends Marcia, Cassie, and Charlotte, while also working part-time for a super villain. Her brother is a rising star in the superhero community.
1151----
1152* GoKartingWithBowser: Magenta is good friends with the hero kids at school but also secretly works for a supervillain.
1153* IconicSequelCharacter: Magenta takes seven books to make an appearance, but once she did, fans weren't complaining about the series' seemingly permanent shift from the still iconic Penny's [=POV=] to rotating protagonists.
1154* MeaningfulName: Magenta is a color, referencing her focus on color with her alchemy superpower. It also doesn't exist in the light spectrum, referencing her secondary power that makes knowledge of her image cease to exist after she leaves an area for half a minute.
1155* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Magenta is horrified when she realizes that [[spoiler:her boss is genuinely dangerous and willing to kill innocents.]]
1156* PerceptionFilter: Magenta's power (one of them anyway, she's also an alchemist) is that no one can remember what she looks like or recognize her from meeting to meeting until she tells them who she is.
1157* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Magenta's older brother Kay (aka The Way) is a beloved and extremely powerful superhero, and while she loves him and he's very protective of her, she is pretty jealous.
1158[[/folder]]
1159
1160[[folder:Tonika]]
1161->''"When I play a computer game, I always identify with the person giving out the quests. They collect the information and solve the puzzles. The protagonist just does the grunt work.''"\
1162
1163Magenta's friend and classmate.
1164----
1165* UsefulNotes/{{Asexuality}} / UsefulNotes/{{Aromantic}}: [[spoiler:After her transformation, Tonika learns that she has not only lost her memories of Sean, but also any sexual or romantic interest. She believes that Organism One thought any such feelings to interfere with her usefulness.]]
1166* BadassNormal: Tonika has no powers but is a strategic genius and is able to recognize Magenta due to focusing on the feeling around her rather than her seemingly changing appearance.
1167* {{Bookworm}}: Tonika states that she spends 3/10ths of her free time reading, and it was 9/10ths before she met her boyfriend.
1168* MuggleBestFriend: Tonika has no powers but gets along well with kids who have powers. She ends up targeted by the villain [[spoiler:Organism One and kidnapped, losing part of her memories]].
1169* UnwillingRoboticisation: [[spoiler:Tonika is captured by Organism One, and is partially transformed into one of her cyborg minions, having difficulty with her emotions even after being rescued.]]
1170* VerbalBackspace: When Magenta asks Tonika if a boy named Sean is her boyfriend, she denies it, but only briefly.
1171--> '''Tonika:''' No! Yes. Extremely yes.
1172[[/folder]]
1173
1174[[folder:Avery Special]]
1175!![[MeaningfulName Avery Special]]/ The Queen of the Dead/Redneckromancer/Deathette
1176-> ''"Never have raised a human zombie. [[TemptingFate Never tried]]. Ah've gotten roadkill to move, and I got a dead gerbil up'n about again once."''\
1177
1178A country girl from a powerful line of necromancers who moves to Los Angeles in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImQueenOfTheDead''.
1179----
1180* AnimeHair: She uses this phrase to describe her "bulging mass" of hair.
1181* AtrociousAlias: Her powers and DeepSouth origins temporarily get her dubbed "Redneckromancer," which she hates.
1182* CountryMouse: She's just moved from Kentucky, has a thick accent, and is awed by the city.
1183* DarkIsNotEvil: Her necromancy doesn't make her remotely mean or untrustworthy.
1184* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Her attempt to resurrect a CorruptCorporateExecutive out of misplaced guilt gives that executive powers she proceeds to horrible misuse, and also gets Avery temporarily possessed by her less benevolent ancestor.
1185* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: She's the greatest living necromancer... because she's the only living necromancer ''left''. There are a handful of undead ones, though, and they prove that she has basically no idea what she's doing with necromancy. She learns fast, though.
1186* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: Her solution to the fight over the [[AmplifierArtifact Mortizoar]] is to realize she doesn't need it because she's still alive and generates mana on her own while her two undead rivals do need it because their mana doesn't replenish. She then destroys it and claims victory.
1187
1188[[/folder]]
1189
1190[[folder:The Devil Twins]]
1191!!Chris and Annie Domingo/The Devil Twins
1192-> '''Chris:''' For movies that have devil characters, the roles are all adults and besides...the directors wouldn't want to worry about what's legal when deciding how little we should be wearing.\
1193'''Annie:''' You can imagine how that removed any interest in a modeling career we had left.\
1194
1195A pair of BigRedDevil twins. Chris can control minds and Anna is a pyrokinetic, but neither of them likes using their powers. They are {{Former Child Star}}s who quit because their SoBeautifulItsACurse nature was attracting the wrong kind of attention.
1196----
1197* CompellingVoice: Chris can control minds to a limited degree. It tends to work best when he uses it as a joke to convince people of something they were already inclined to do.
1198* HalfIdenticalTwins: Chris and Annie are the same height and have the same "scarlet red skin and glossy black hair", although his muscles, her breasts, and the different lines in their faces distinguish them.
1199* HollywoodAtheist: Their mother was an avid church-goer... and then she gave birth to two devil babies. The fact that their mother was excommunicated for their mere existence soured them on religion.
1200* JailBaitTaboo: The twins are fifteen, but adults repeatedly mistake them for other adults and hit on them, to their discomfort.
1201* PlayingWithFire: Anna is an extremely powerful pyrokinetic. However, she's also a NiceGirl and has no ability to ''put out'' fires, so she rarely uses it.
1202* {{Polyamory}}: Chris likes Avery and doesn't mind the idea of him and Sue both having relationships with her.
1203[[/folder]]
1204
1205[[folder:Peggy]]
1206!!Peggy Pendleton
1207->''"[[CatchPhrase Accurate]]."''\
1208
1209A drab-looking friend of Avery who [[BeeBeeGun can make insects attack people]].
1210----
1211* AlliterativeName: ''P''eggy ''P''endleton.
1212* HeroicBastard: She has no interest in being a villain and her HippieParents, Dave and Moonshine, live together without being married.
1213* TheQuietOne: She's careful with her words and often uses the one word sentence "Accurate."
1214[[/folder]]
1215
1216[[folder:Gumshoe Ghost Girl]]
1217!! Gumshoe Ghost Girl
1218* TheExoticDetective: Of the ghost detective variety. Alongside [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Ghost Cat Solvin' Mysteries]], they are the Bubblegumshoe Detective Agency.
1219* JacobMarleyApparel: Implied with Gumshoe Girl's rather archaic apparel.
1220* MonochromeApparition: She's noted to be sepia-toned, like an old photograph.
1221* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Gumshoe Ghost Girl has been operating for over two hundred years, far longer than most ghosts can persist. Avery can't explain it, and Gumshoe Ghost Girl doesn't elaborate.
1222[[/folder]]
1223

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