The second book in the series! From the moment Joshua Dread receives an invitation to Gyfted & Talented, the mysterious program for kids with superpowers, his plans for a normal summer turn upside down. Evil maniac Phineas Vex is still alive—and he wants Joshua dead. So if G&T can help prepare Joshua for battle, he's all in. And so are Sophie and Milton. Except they get more than they bargained for. The truth is that Joshua and his friends have been chosen to form the greatest superhero team of all time. That is, if they make it through G&T's rigorous training. Suddenly Joshua is thrust into the media spotlight, and it's not as glamorous as people think. And what will happen if his supervillain parents find out that the new celebrity superhero is . . . Joshua?  No one ever said fighting evil would be easy. "A superpowered thumbs up." - Kirkus Reviews "Funny, action-packed, and a total page-turner. You'll want to read to the bitter end--unless Joshua's parents destroy the world first. Which is a distinct possibility." - Adam Gidwitz, New York Times bestselling author of A Tale Dark & Grimm and In a Glass Grimmly LEE BACON grew up in Texas with parents who never once tried to destroy the world (at least, not that he knew of). He is the author of the Joshua Dread series and lives in Brooklyn, New York. 1 The last day of the sixth grade wasn't turning out the way I'd expected at all. And that was before the substitute librarian tried to kill me. I was in my room, looking for something to wear, when an explosion rocked the floor beneath me. Whatever it was, I had a feeling my mom and dad were involved. Take it from me, when you have supervillains for parents, you get used to unexplained noises in the house. It might've been a new invention my dad was testing out. Or maybe one of my mom's experiments had gone terribly wrong. Either way, I wasn't going to let it bother me. Not on a day like this. The school year was finally coming to an end. Summer was right around the corner. Just the thought of it made me smile. Two and a half months of sleeping late and watching TV, not worrying about homework or schedules. Two and a half months of nothing. If only I'd known how wrong I was. My dad was seated at the dining room table, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. Strands of morning sunlight shone through the window, reflecting off the abnormally thick rims of the glasses he'd customized to regulate his super-vision. "Morning, Joshua," he said. "Hey, did you hear a noise a minute ago?" "Noise? What kind of noise?" Before I could answer, another crash erupted. It sounded like it had come from the kitchen. "That kind of noise," I said. "What was that?" "Oh, that's just Elliot," Dad said. "He's making pancakes." All of a sudden, a robot lurched into the room. He looked a little like a tin trash can, with protractible arms on either side of his body and flat paddles for feet. His head was a cube-shaped hunk of metal that wobbled on top of a thin plastic neck. Elliot had made his entrance. Dad had come up with the idea for Elliot after sharing a ride with Captain Justice seven months earlier. It had been awkward enough for my parents to carpool with their sworn enemy, the superhero they'd been fighting for years. On top of that, Dad had also seemed a little jealous of Stanley, Captain Justice's robot butler in the driver's seat. "Why can't we have a robot butler?" Dad had complained once we'd gotten home. "We're two of the most successful supervillains in the world, right?" "Of course, honey," Mom had said, massaging the back of his neck. "Then we deserve a robot butler too!" And so Dad had set out to build one. But the thing about my dad is, when he gets really excited about an idea, he becomes kind of impatient. It's part of the reason why our house is so packed with inventions. He's always working on five things at once. And it's also part of the reason why all these inventions are usually a little bit . . . flawed. Elliot was a good example. He'd only been in service for a couple of weeks, but he'd already destroyed half our house. He'd smashed the front window during his attempt to clean it. The living room rug had been torn to shreds as a result of his "vacuuming." Breakfast didn't seem like it was going to turn out any better. "The pancakes look delicious," Dad said to Elliot. I glanced at the charred brown mush that Elliot was carrying. It looked more like grilled boogers than pancakes. But Dad just went on talking to Elliot like he was the best robot butler in the world. "Thank you for preparing breakfast," he said. "You are welcooooome," said Elliot in a slurred electronic voice. "It was my pleasummmmack!" Did I mention that whenever Elliot spoke, his voice came out sounding like a radio going haywire? Dad kept promising to fix the robot's speech function. Obviously, he hadn't gotten around to it yet. Elliot set down one of the plates on the edge of the table. The oth