Rise of the Evil Army!
Page 5
Cornelius pretended to actually consider their request. “Well, I would stop, but I want to take over the world and become the supreme roach ruler. So I could lie to you and tell you I’ll stop, if that’s what you want to hear. But I won’t. I’ll never stop until the world is mine!”
“You’re not getting it,” Willie Weevil said.
“We like being bad,” added Wanda Black Widow.
“You don’t have to trick us into being bad,” Ted stated.
“We like being bad,” Willie repeated.
“All you have to do is ask,” Wanda explained.
Cornelius took a minute to consider what they were saying. Was it true or a trick? There was only one way to know for sure.
Taking Wanda’s advice, he asked, “You LIKE being bad?”
“We LOVE being bad,” replied all twelve of the bugs standing in front of him.
“All twelve of you will help me take over the world?” the roach asked.
“We’ll all help you take over the world,” the twelve bad bugs declared in unison.
Cornelius looked at all of them. Twelve helpers, twelve assistants, all less stupid than the Dungs. His eyes almost filled with tears. Instead, he concluded, “Then you will be my Dirty Dozen. You will all become villains and do villainous things for the sheer joy of being bad—and with the express aim of helping me take over the world. Deal?”
“Deal!” shouted all twelve of the nasty bugs.
“From now on your villain names will be . . . Terrible Tarantula, Evil Weevil, Wicked Walking Stick, Awful Aphid, Angry Ant, Horrible Hornet, Gnasty Gnat, Loathsome Leech, Ferocious Firefly, Treacherous Termite, Menacing Moth, and Killer Bee,” Cornelius announced, adding, “Killer Bee, your name is staying the same because it already sounds sinister and scary.”
Killer Bee nodded. “That’s cool.”
If you think it’s strange to know a cockroach can cry, it’s even stranger to think a cockroach can smile. But that’s what Cornelius was doing. That big bully roach wore a huge smile on his hideous face as he exclaimed, “To the dirty diaper!”
Cornelius took out his journal and wrote on his Top Secret To-Do List: Find a bigger hideout.
So the thirteen evil bugs went off to secretly plan how to defeat Super Fly and take over the world once and for all!
Todd H. Doodler is the author and illustrator of the Super Fly series, Rawr! and the Bear in Underwear series, as well as many other fun books for young readers. He is also the founder of David & Goliath, a humorous T-shirt company, and Tighty Whitey Toys, which makes plush animals in underwear. He, too, is a part-time superhero and lives in Los Angeles with his daughter, Elle, and their two labradoodles, Muppet and Pickleberry.
Copyright © 2017 by Todd Goldman
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published in the United States of America in February 2017 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
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This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Doodler, Todd H., author, illustrator.
Title: Rise of the evil army / by Todd H. Doodler.
Description: New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. | Series: Super Fly; 4
Summary: Super Fly has stopped Crazy Cockroach from taking over the world. He’s conquered an entire hypnotized city of bugs. He’s even battled his own sidekick!
But now Super Fly is facing the most dangerous threat of all: an evil army of insects organized by Crazy Cockroach himself.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013307 (print) | LCCN 2016036823 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-1-61963-388-9 (HB)
ISBN: 978-1-61963-387-2 (PB)
ISBN: 978-1-61963-389-6 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Superheroes—Fiction. | Flies—Fiction. | Insects—Fiction.
Humorous stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION/Humorous Stories. |
JUVENILE FICTION/Action & Adventure/General. |
JUVENILE FICTION/Comics & Graphic Novels/Superheroes.
Classification: LCC PZ7.D7247 Ri 2017 (print) | LCC PZ7.D7247 (e-book) |
DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013307
Book design by Nicole Gastonguay and Yelena Safronova
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