Heroes are the worst. Jim Riven would know—he used to be one. Now he just wants to run his crumbling old bar and be left alone. Beer and chicken wings don’t try to vaporize him. Well, not since that one time.

But when remnants of his old life come calling, they bring the one reason he can’t ignore. Lock, a hero who died fighting for the Spectrum world’s premier hero team may not be so dead after all. But if she’s alive, where has she been? Though Jim works hard at not caring about stuff, this is different. Lock was his sister, and the truth about her is hidden somewhere in the Spectrum’s base.

Sneaking in is easy. For the first time in years, the Spectrum has invited aspiring heroes to compete for recruitment. The hard part? Something has twisted the Spectrum’s minds, and now they’re hunting the recruits for sport. If Jim’s going to survive long enough to find the truth, he’ll have to work with a ragtag group of wannabe heroes—and one villain—all while keeping his true identity secret.

See? Heroes are the worst.